(243) Venice Reflections
16 x 20, watercolor
I choose today's painting because the water reflections in Venice create the most amazing designs at every turn. The light is extraordinary, creating a constantly evolving palette of colors and reflections-truly an endless source of inspiration for the photographer as well as the artist. And speaking of design, thanks so much to California artist Diane Bronstein at Inspirations by Design for choosing to feature my paintings on her website today. I am honored! Please click here to visit her very cool website.
Also thanks to all who have emailed to say they missed seeing new work lately--I've gotten stuck in a cleaning, sorting, organizing, inventorying frenzy, but will be back at the easel this week. Ciao!
"The Creator made Italy from designs by Michelangelo"...Mark Twain

(242) Twins
16 x 20, oil
private collection
"The environment you fashion out of your thoughts, your beliefs, your ideals. your philosophy is the only climate you will ever live in. The key is in not spending time, but in investing it"...Stephen R. Covey

(241) Sailboats
8 x 10, oil
private collection
"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough"...Rabindranath Tagore

(240) Sailing Lesson
12 x 16, oil
"We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking. We move along the surface of things...but there are times when we stop.
We sit still. We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory.
We listen...and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper"...James Carroll

(239) The Daily News
9 x 12, oil
"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all"...Peter Drucker

(238) Cosmo's Pears
9 x 12, oil
private collection
"It's not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy.
The bee is praised.
The mosquito is swatted."
...Mary O'Conner

(237) Jackson's Orchard
10 x 12, oil
private collection
This quote is particularly meaningful this week as I continue with archived paintings while I reorganize a few things:
"Organizing time is exactly like organizing space. Just as a closet is a limited amount of space into which you must fit a certain number of objects, a schedule is a limited space into which you must fit a certain number of tasks. Each day and each week is simply a container, a storage unit with a definite capacity. The trick is to treat time not as an abstraction but as something solid that you can hold onto and move around"...Julie Morganstern

(236) Silver Queen
6 x 8, oil
"Whatever your situation is right now, you have played a major role in setting it up. It is you who have created your circumstances. With every experience, you alone are painting your own canvas, thought by thought, choice by choice. And beneath each of those thoughts and choices lies your deepest intention"...Oprah Winfrey

(235) Reading Room
9 x 12, oil
private collection
"So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours"...Ralph Waldo Emerson

(234) Tango
8 x 16, oil
September has ushered in new schedules, commitments and obligations unrelated to painting, so lately I've been pondering time management - as in how to organize time for all the things I have to do/want to do/need to do/can't find time to do... so this statement really grabbed me:
"A tough manager will have realistic quotas for his employees that he keeps to himself and aggressively stretch quotas, anywhere from ten percent higher to a lot more, which he imposes on his staff. If his people miss the stretch numbers but exceed the realistic goals, he's happy. If he's a superb manager, he knows how far they can stretch without breaking"(Twyla Tharp) Yes, how far CAN we stretch without breaking? (Has Gov. Palin written a book addressing that yet?) Twyla also reminds us to "Concentrate. You CAN'T have it all" Hmmmnn, I would venture to add that prioritizing and managing time wisely are the keys to discerning just how much attention and focus are required for each commitment. And learning to delegate is a learned skill for those of us who struggle with handing over the reigns. So... my question is this: how does Twyla's advice translate for those of us who serve as both the manager and the employee? This is a frequent topic among my artist friends, especially women, who tend to "wear many hats" in addition to that of artist - I'll let you know if we ever figure it all out. Meanwhile, I am going to post a few older paintings for a few days (like the one above) while I attempt to get caught up on things outside the studio...oops, Time's Up, Gotta Go!
"We are too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet" (unknown author)

(233) Summers End
6 x 6, oil
"Think about it, there must be higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is wasted time
Look inside your heart,
I'll look inside mine"
...Stevie Winwood