Topia

Last week at the Los Angeles County Arboretum, it was very hot.  I sat in the shade where it was relatively cool and painted this.  I was approached by baby ducks, but I had nothing for them.  There was an event called Spring!topia going on, and I tried to take it in after I painted, but it was hot enough that my edges wilted and I just ended up going home.

This is the Queen Anne Cottage that I painted once before.  It has a good story that I told once before.  It was featured in the opening scene of a 1970s/1980s television show called Fantasy Island.  The period Fantasy Island ran pretty much paralleled the time when I lived without a television.  Although somehow I knew the show well enough to be familiar with one of its actors, Herve Villechaze, who walked into my pub one night, and walked up to the bar and ordered a drink.  I think I may have helped him, because he was extremely small, and unlikely to be seen from behind the bar.

I was recalling that I don't remember my parents ever taking me to the arboretum.  Which seems odd because my father was such a fan and walking encyclopedia of trees.  I went with the Girl Scouts, and got a bit of training about plants and did some nature-related crafts.  I went back on a regular basis as a teenager.  It was a place to feed ducks, hold hands with boys, and gather feathers to adorn our hippie-girl hair.   That was years before I knew of the migratory birds act.

Stroke of Luck

A fellow painter admired this, and I said I found painting a little like poker. Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold them, she said. True enough. But I was thinking of the element of luck. Because I work every bit as hard on the bad paintings as the good ones. Like poker, there's a lot of luck involved, but the more you do it, the more often your luck is good. Be warned: I am totally unqualified to offer poker advice.

Coincidentally, this lovely Queen Anne structure used to belong to a fellow whose nickname was Lucky. It was built for his sixteen year-old bride. Lucky Baldwin nearly lost his life and fortune on several occasions, but by luck he kept missing death and financial ruin. He did finally die.

That expression -- stroke of luck; it may well refer to a brushstroke.

Fire and rain

I was at the Arboretum one day one December when a fire broke out in the foothills. I painted it.

Next week, I understand, there will be rain and plenty of it.