Aug
25
2007
As everyone now knows, Hurricane Dean did not arrive in Texas last week thankfully - it went south of us to Mexico. I haven’t been to the beach in Galveston to find out if the tides and waves are calmer now so we again have calm seas but in decorating homes and offices with seascapes … most generally want calm seas for viewing pleasure.
Whenever I see a stormy sea painting in an office - I always think that the decorator had really good taste to pick one that is so energetic and full of passion - I love calm sea paintings that are so inviting - yet those stormy seas rivet me to in front of it drinking in all the movement. I feel energetic instead of ready for a nap seeing a stormy sea - it does not exhaust me but gives me motivation to go win against all odds. Stormy sea paintings can inspire us into putting forth our best efforts in life and to invest our own passions into whatever we are doing.
I would not want a stormy sea painting in a bedroom - that might create turbulent nightmares - but in a kitchen, living room (great room?), dining room or family room especially, it could be the focal point for a variety of accent colors for furniture and decorator pillows. Try looking outside the box when decorating with seascape paintings - your room will stand out in people’s memories for being unusual and not the same as everyone else’s.
The paintings below from various ImageKind artists are lovely and would be a fine focal point or accent piece. I chose these because I like the paintings and also the artist’s painting style - the variety of color harmonies is extensive also which makes for a great selection of decorating ideas.
Aug
18
2007
Tropical Storm Erin came through Texas this last week - it caused a lot of flooding since we’ve had a lot of excess rain the last couple months or so. Now we are watching to see if Hurricane Dean arrives in Texas this coming week.
Before the Tropical Storm, I had planned to drive down to the beach this week-end - next Monday is my birthday and it seemed like it would be a great time to go to the beach to do some watercolor painting on location - plein air painting is pretty easy when you are using watercolor pencils - no muss no fuss - I have a travel spray bottle of water for my watercolors - right now, I am doing a lot of spraying water experimenting - but instead, this week-end I was at the store buying hurricane preparedness supplies … bottled water … an AM/FM radio … extra batteries … food that can double as lunch if it is not needed for a hurricane aftermath 
In Galveston, from the Ferry, we can see the lighthouse over on Bolivar [Page2] - it is starkly dark against the sky - it is privately owned (not open to the public at all) and it is brick with riveted cast-iron plates - seriously rusted - that appear to be solid black whenever I have seen it - I was thinking it would be good to take some pictures with the digital camera and also do some sketching of it and the trees down there - it is not happening this week-end. So … I went and looked at pictures of lighthouses.
Part of my preparation was also to get some small watercolor paper pads for quick sketching of ideas - one of which is a series of whimsical trees that I started last nite - you may be asking why I would consider watercolor paper a hurricane supply. Simple - if I am stuck at home due to weather and lost power or have to shut down the computer due to lightning - I can paint - and I actually want and need to paint whether the weather is good or bad and whether the computer is on or off. I have larger paper that I would be using too but I wanted something much smaller also - similar in idea to the artist trading cards that many artists are creating and selling on Ebay (I’m not … yet) and I think mine are much too big for that … but I want to create trees and miniature seascapes on them so I do not want paper that is too tiny - I will see if they will scan in or not - some watercolor paintings do not scan well at all while others scan really well. The ones that scan well will go in my gallery at ImageKind. I’m too tired tonite to scan anything - carrying all that water was hard work 
… putting it into the cart … loading it into the car … getting it out of the car … I haven’t even brought any of it in and put it in the refrigerator yet. I bought some lemonade packages for bottles of water as well as more Kool-Aid ones - I like the cherry Kool-Aid really well. I have some Crystal Light ice tea packets but I am not very fond it … eventually it will get used … maybe.
The small papers will be good for taking in the car for sketching at lunch time during the week also - it is easy to sketch whimsical trees during lunch since there isn’t much else going into the painting … though some will be much more detailed seascapes than the first five I did last night.
I am also considering trying some whimsical lighthouses - perhaps sort of cartoonish but not cartoons … we’ll see how those go - I haven’t had time to try any of those yet to see if I like the idea or not.
Eventually, I will get down to Galveston with the digital camera and watercolor paper for plein air painting - I need to remember to take business cards too - I have found that if I am painting in public … people talk to me - What ya doing? Can I see? - just for starters. The lighthouse has weathered many hurricanes … it saved several people during a hurricane while it was in service many years ago - I would not want to have to be inside of it during a hurricane .. but I am sure that those who were saved by being in that lighthouse were very grateful to be there during the storm, especially when they came out to find the devastation of the area.
If we have a hurricane - I hope the lighthouse weathers it well yet again - I find the sight of it to be quite spooky even from a distance - it is the being black I believe - pictures usually have lighthouses as white or painted white & black stripes … quite cheerful looking … not solid black stark against the sky. But I would certainly miss it if it were not there - for me - it is part of Galveston - seeing the Bolivar Lighthouse from the Ferry.
