A birthday bash at 85!

I figured we would be half an hour late, but it went beyond that. We, my husband and I, got to the party an hour late. It started at 11 AM and was to end 3:30 PM, so an hour was not bad. The food was buffet style, and there were still plenty left. On our way there, we made a wrong turn and got past our exit on the freeway. We exited after noticing that we reached the next town already, and we looked for familiar street names. We found one, and drove till we got there. The party was well underway, but some tables still have empty chairs left, so we grabbed a couple for us.

The invitation.

(click image to enlarge)

The birthday girl...err...celebrant was my landlady some decades ago. Till now she never forgets to invite me and my husband at her parties. When she turned 80 five years ago, we were there to celebrate with her. It was a casual party with a few friends in attendance. I gave her a 16" x 20" oil painting.

This time, I gave her an 8" x 10" painting I did summer of 2009.

The celebrant dancing with a guest.

Now turning 85 is a bigger milestone. More people were invited and she was dressed to the hilt in a white, lacy embroidered gown. It is amazing that at her age she can still dance a little, though I noticed that she has a bit of a hunch and has a hard time getting on her feet. She has some gray hair; some wrinkles; but all in all she looks fantastic, and very alert. Except for the stiffness of joints she could pass for a 60-year-old.

The celebrant with some guests.

There was a short program that included a toast with a brief biography of the celebrant; introduction of the offspring and their children; her siblings and their spouses and children. This party was given to her by her 3 children. The oldest now in his late forties; the middle, a woman in her forties, married with children; and the youngest in his early forties, married with children, as well. The celebrant's husband and father of the children passed away sometime in the 1970s.

Guests hitting the dance floor.

And, as usual, in any Filipino party there is always dancing. As soon as the music was on everyone was at the floor doing their line dancing, cha-chas, and mambos...except for me. I have forgotten the steps of those dances, and besides my husband has 2 left feet. With a slow dance, he always stepped on my foot. Ouch! So, I'd rather not dance. Why suffer?

When we said good-bye to her youngest, he said, "See you in 5 years." I gave him a thumbs up. It's possible she would still be around by that time.

Would I wish to get to that age? Yes, if I could still boogie and eat without dentures.

Eyes were made for seeing...

...and beauty is its reason for being.

To view her and others, walk this way------here.

Or ...

...click here.

Stop and Smell the...

...roses? Hold on! This rose is by the wayside and I know that people walk their dogs here. And everyone knows that dogs do their business here, out here. Oh, you know what I mean by business...they poop and pee.

And what is this rose doing here? It should be there in a yard, out there in a well cared for place, where it's watered regularly; where it's beauty can be admired by all. Here it gets nothing but dust, and dogs' businesses.

Now, if I smell this rose, what's going to happen? Would it make this dark clouds above me disappear? Would it bring me tons of money? Or would I just smell pee? Ack!!! Forget it, I am not going to do it...unless, of course, I'd get that tons of money. That...I'm sure will get rid of this gray puff of clouds above me. :-p

I better get going. I bought sardines at the fish store and I'm rushing to have it for lunch. Yes, it's fresh sardines. I love fresh sardines. I grill it, bake it or fry it, and it's umm, umm good.

They were caught in the sea. They can be canned, grilled, baked or fried. Umm, sarap, nagutom tuloy ako. They can be dried or smoked (tinapa) as well. Sardines are our tunsoy in Tagalog. Each time, however that we go to our neighborhood sari-sari store to buy "sardinas" Leung or Akong would give us the canned one. I love the canned Tomi brand that is in oil with a bit of red chili and a tiny slice of carrots in it. Umm...lalo akong ginutom.

I have to go back to that rose. I got this fortune cookie from the last time I had lunch at a Thai restaurant, and it said:

"It's okay to slow down and smell the roses. "

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Good-bye my gumamelas.

It's time to say good-bye to my gumamela paintings (click here). I have enjoyed them for a while, but now I'm sending them away. A lady in New York wanted to have them.

I pulled a spare balikbayan box from behind a wall unit and fashioned a small box that would fit 2-16" x 12" oil paintings.

I then wrapped the paintings in plastic then carefully wrapped it again in bubble wrap...

closed the box...sealed it...typed the recipient's address on a piece of paper, glued it on and took it to the post office for delivery and bade it farewell.

I tracked it down on the internet and it's now nearing its destination...perhaps tomorrow, Monday, or Tuesday the mailman would be knocking at her door delivering the package. It will soon hang on the wall of her home--my paintings' new home. Sniff...sniff...I'll miss them. I had them for over a year and now they are gone, my two lovely gumamela paintings. Maybe, I should make another one, and this time a larger one, and of different color. And then, maybe, send them away to another home. Or, maybe, this time I'll keep it. ;-)

Hocus Focus

I have so many things on my mind to blog about, but I can not focus on one. Scatter brained? I suppose I am. And I have so many things to do as well. I start one project and then go on to another one. I get sidetracked so easily. I need to focus. I thought I would resume painting what I have started a while back, so I started clearing my drawing table of junk. I then got my palette and scraped the dried up oil paint that has been sitting there for months. I got those 2 things done. Got my easel with the unfinished painting on it and dusted it. Somewhere along the way I got distracted by something. Soon the cleared drawing table started to fill up with junk once again.

Now I remember what had caught my eye and distracted me. It was a pencil drawing I have done, 2 of them in fact. One was of little Sue's when she was 5 years old and the other was of Eddie's when he was of the same age. Eddie is 5 years older than Sue, but those were the 2 pictures of them I found nearby when I thought I should try pencil drawing. I had done portrait before when I was in college, but that was a long time ago. And those days I used grid. Now I thought maybe I should not do that and do more freehand style. Grid for a small drawing, I think, is amateurish. It would be alright to use it for a big painting as in a mural, like those I've seen on the side of skyscrapers. Come to think of it. I should take a picture of one of those murals in downtown Los Angeles when I happen to be there. I hardly go there anymore. It takes about 50 minutes driving time to get there. And then there's the parking that would take more time to find.



3 B pencil on 8 1/2" x 11" plain paper

Flowers by a friend

A painting in colored pencil done by my friend Nancy. She's a very versatile artist; she can do anything in any media--oil, colored pencil, water color, charcoal pencil, pastel and others. She did this drawing in her spare time, while watching TV--one eye on the TV and the other on her drawing. Just kidding. And right after she finished it she sent it to me via her cellphone to my cellphone. What technology can do nowadays, we can send copies of pictures not only through the internet or fax machines, but also through our cellphones. And the colors never changed, it is as vivid and striking as the original.

I love this painting. Her blending of colors, color combinations and composition are excellent. She truly is a great artist; she has honed her skill with the help of her tutor-- her loving artist husband.

In A Little Corner

At the Island Pacific, a Filipino store in Van Nuys, California, there is a painting that I've been admiring for some time now. It looked like an oil painting; and most probably done by a Filipino painter. It's colorful and painted in an impressionistic style. But somehow this painting was hanging so high, about 20'-0" from the floor; and at a corner where hardly anyone would notice it, unless, one's eye wanders around and up. It is right above where shelves of tofu (tokwa), dried fish, dried shrimps and jars of shrimp paste (bagoong) are. A few feet away are the fresh fish section. From here it gets, maybe, the proper amount of humidity and perhaps could've absorbed some of the fish smell. It could be for lack of room to hang it was relegated to a small dark corner of the store. What a shame, a beautiful painting cast aside. Sana ibigay na lang sa akin at ilagay ko sa sala namin para makita ng lahat ang ganda nito.

Here's the painting taken with my cell phone camera.

Portrait on Scrap

I met a lady artist about a year ago. She was sitting in the shade by a building taking cover from the sizzling hot sun. I took cover myself, and sat about 4 feet away from her. She sat there reading a book and was intently looking at a picture of a painting, her hand moving, mimicking the movement of a brush. I stroke up a conversation with her thinking probably that she is a painter, an artist. “Painting book?” I asked. She looked up from the book and answered me politely with a, “Yes.” “Are you an artist?” I asked again. She is; had done all media: pencil, pastel, water color, pen and ink and others, except oil. (I never asked her why she stayed away from oil.) She had attended classes and workshops on art; gone to parties with her sketch book and drew the attendees. I told her that I’ve taken an oil painting class; done some paintings, but have never ventured into portraiture. She had encouraged me to take it up, and as she looked up at my husband (who stopped by) she said I should use him as a model. Yes, perhaps I can try it; I’d never know what I can do unless I try my hand at it.

Her husband, a nice tall gentleman, is a veteran of WWII; been to the Philippines during the war. Both of them have experience the days of the depression era; nothing goes to waste. To save her husband’s half-full bottle of coke she poured it in her half-full can of coke.

When it was time for me and my husband to go I said goodbye to her and told her she had inspired me; that I will try my hand at portraiture. She in turn had expressed the same, and to pick up her brush again, as she had for a while been on a hiatus.

A few days after I met the lady, I tried painting a portrait of the First Lady, using her picture on a magazine as a model. As I sat on the couch watching TV, I grabbed a scrap paper and a pencil and copied the picture on the clean side of the paper…the other side has writings on it.




















This is what came out. I would say not bad for a newbie. The writings on the other side of the paper came through the scanner. For some reason, if I do my drawing on scrap paper, I do well, but on a better quality clean drawing paper, somehow I screw up.





I tried to do the same portrait, a week ago, on a clean Strathmore drawing paper and this is what came out. Argh! I didn't do justice to the First Lady. Argh, argh!!!! It could be that my hand was shaky then, as I was still ill and not strong enough? That’s my excuse. Ha!

I'm not a professional artist. What I've done here, my artworks, I do on my spare time...it's only a hobby. But someday, I hope to devote more time on it.

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Greetings to all!

Little Girl With Bike.

3 1/4" x 2 1/4" B & W Photo

This is a picture of me and the old house taken when I was about 10 years old. In the back of that house is the Pasig River where my siblings and I used to swim, fish and play. Lots of good memories with them.












3B pencil on 6" x 5" paper.

I've been trying my hand at doing figures and portraits and this is as close as I can get to that tiny picture above.

Patio

Oil on canvas
16" x 20"

My patio.
One of my original paintings.

A Study for Oil Painting

Pen and color pencil on paper.
9" x 12"

This was a study for my orchids oil painting, but I abandoned it some months ago. I put the tablet of drawing paper away, and didn't think about it. Last night I thought I should do some sketching and as I flipped the pages of my tablet I was surprised to find a drawing there. I worked on it some more, brightened up the colors. I don't know if I should leave it the way it is or add a background.

Orchids for a Friend

Oil on canvas
20" x 24"

A request by a friend for a yellow orchid painting sent me searching high and low. I surfed the web; scanned house magazines; garden books and all reading materials I could lay my hands on, but none I could find. I was in a quandary. Finally, a gold colored one...with tinges of yellow and hues of brown. I painted it so there would be more yellow, some gold and brown. Finally, there's my yellow--not mine for long--orchids, soon on its way to the new owner--Nini.

Quiet Heaven
A poem by Nini.

Hibiscus

Oil on canvas.
12" x 16"



















Oil on canvas.
12" x 16"

Tiffany's art gallery

Tiffany lives in upstate New York with her daughter, her son and her husband. Her husband is a professional painter; he specializes in portrait painting.

Tiffany's art gallery.

Today I'm featuring the art works of my friend Tiffany. One of Tiffany's hobbies is painting--oil, pencil and color pencil. Here are some of her color pencil drawings




.

Room With A View

Oil on 16" x 20" canvas.

The room is there and the view, but I've changed some things here. The existing door was an aluminum slidng door. I like wood French doors. I might as well paint something I like. The balcony railings are much closer, I spaced them farther apart to have more view of the background. The plants aren't there. I can't grow plants on the balcony, it can't survive the extreme heat; and I don't have breakfast in bed...those are props only.

Bird of Paradise

Oil on 10" x 7" canvas.

10" x 7" piece of canvas glued on 14" x 10" illustration board.

Sketch

Here I go...this is me. Just doodling and this is what came out. I got pretty close...real close to what I look like. Eyeglasses have been imbedded on my face. I've been nearsighted since I was 13 years old. I tried contacts for a while, but finally, I didn't want to bother with it anymore. All I need is to plunk my other 2 eyes and I go. I still could walk around without my glasses, but I wouldn't be able to know if a person who's coming is smiling at me or not. I could pretty much tell who he/she is by his/her silhouette. One thing I couldn't do without them is drive.

Practice work

Oil on 8" x 10" canvas...about 6 years old--one of my practice works. The painting goes all the way to the sides of the canvas, which is about an inch thick. I didn't take a picture of it showing the sides...and unfortunately I don't have this painting anymore. Someone bought it. .