CHINCOTEAGUE HORSE

This past June I travelled to Chapel Hill, N.C. to visit my daughter, Carla, husband, Jeremiah and their 3 year old twins, William and Sophia.

As she has lived there, I've had other opportunities to see new scenes along the way.

This time, I stopped for two nights on Chincoteague Island, off the coast of Virginia. I stayed at the Watson House, a lovely B &B and enjoyed the day visiting the horses on the island.

There is a "Rune" stone I picked once which represents the horse. It's called Ehwaz. Ehwaz is a Rune of transit, transition and movement...of new dwelling places, new attitudes or new life. It also signifies movement in the sense of improving or bettering any situation. " As I cultivate my own nature, all else follows." Sometimes I just need to visit horses.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

from THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

by Robert Frost

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence;

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

When I travelled to Ithaca to see Ethan, my son, Amy, my daughter-in-law and Lily, my granddaughter, there are two ways to travel. One is out Rt. 80, the other is out Rt. 17 West. I chose Rt. 17 and was astonished at the scenic views along the way. The photos I took have made all the difference in the reference material I now have for my paintings. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live on this farm? Perhaps some day I will have a house in the country where my children and grandchildren can visit. We could watch the birds, turkeys and deer as my son and his family do... in Ithaca....and I would have more and more scenes to paint.

WHICH ROAD WILL YOU TAKE.....IN LIFE?

SNOW HAD FALLEN SNOW ON SNOW

This painting was done from a photograph I took on the way to visit my son and his family in Ithaca, New York. I planned the trip to coincide with seeing the snow on the barns and the breathtaking views as I drove up Rt. 17 in New York State.

The snow in winter always gives me a sense of peace, warmth and quiet. It is a time for me to slow down, as if I was a hibernating bear... to think, plan and reflect on the year before and the year ahead....when the spring will finally come.
As I was painting, all I could think of was the hymm:
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow on snow, in the bleak midwinter long, long ago.
Christina Rosstti (19th C))

GOD'S GARDEN

God's Garden is not really a place where flowers grow. It is a place where people grow. It is where all of us are right now. We are always in this garden from the time we are born until the time we die. Hopefully in life we will grow in the right direction and that direction is toward God. We are all here for the same reason. We have to sprout and grow wings like a bird in order to fly there. Either way it will be a rough journey and growing is usually a pretty painful process. Our lives here are not about what we are going to get....but about what we are going to give.

I painted this painting from a photograph of a garden in Bay Head, N.J. I had seen and painted this garden before, but, somehow, I was drawn back to it. I wanted to see it in a new way.

I was in Point Pleasant, N.J., nearby, preparing to sell my deceased parents' house. My brother, who had lived in the house, had passed away in Jan. 2007. It was a difficult time for me.

This garden represented hope for me. The whiteness of the fence and the beauty of the flowers was like a balm for my grief. Many of the plants in my parents' home are now still living and settling in to new peoples' homes. We all need to move on after difficulties in our lives.

I encourage all my artist friends, and others, to use their creative talents to focus on the immediate beauty around us. I know so many people who seem to seek to travel all over the world to find new sites and experiences.

Think about looking in your own backyards or down the street to see things in a new way. It is at that point where you notice something that you haven't really looked at before......that you will gain new insights and, perhaps, be able to create a really beautiful work of art.

I WISH YOU ALL CREATIVE ENERGY.....AND HOPE!

Love, Kathy

WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS

This is a painting in watercolor and pastel of a column in a hall at the Cloisters in New York.
I was fascinated by the original photograph with the small window leading to the light.

HELP US IN THIS ADVENT SEASON TO ALLOW THAT LIGHT TO SHINE THROUGH US, SO THAT THE DARK AREAS OF OUR LIVES CAN BE PIERCED BY CHRIST'S LOVE.
From a service at the Cresskill Congrega-
tional Church,
Cresskill, N.J.
Sunday, Dec. 2nd.
http://www.cresskillucc.org/



WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS,
LIGHT

From the Poem of St. Francis

If there is darkness in your life at present, it is my holiday wish for you all....that light may shine through and make your way easier.


BLESSINGS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON.

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT A TOWER....

There is something about a tower of a building that brings me closer to God. I often choose to paint a tower, a steeple or a lighthouse, reaching up to the sky.
It seems to reach up to heaven. This is the tower of the Tenafly, NJ railroad station that has been turned into "Angelique's cafe." The food is great!
Last time I met a friend there for lunch, a train actually went by like in an old-time movie.
"What lovers of beauty seek in paintings, in sculpture, in dance, in music is just a reflection of the absolute beauty that is God."

From Words to Live by, Inspiration for Every Day, by Eknath Easwaran

I WENT TO THE WOODS

I went to the woods because I wished to live

deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Henry David Thoreau

This is a watercolor/pastel painting of the Celery Farm pond in Allendale, NJ.

The shape of the two trees seemed "linked together". The pastel makes the painting more powerful when used over the watercolor. The water did remind me of Thoreau's Walden pond in Massachusetts. Spending time in nature helps me slow down, THINK, and just BE.