Portrait dominated living room

Room with Jason’s Portrait, 9x7" watercolor

Connie was pregnant with Jason at my wedding to Jerry Behr in 1976. Jerry’s gone now and so is Connie, but Stan and Connie’s Jason lives on in Arizona. Jason’s beautiful portrait lives in his dad’s living room in La Jolla, CA. It’s one of the most impressive portraits I’ve ever seen by a non-famous artist. Painted life-size on a canvas seven feet tall, it has the presence of a John Singer Sargeant. Certainly this watercolor, painted from a balcony overlooking the living room, does not do the portrait justice.

Will paint for shelter

The East Bedroom, 7x9" watercolor

In Minneapolis I lived a $17 cab fare from the airport. Now I live about seventy miles from the airport, not easy when one is traveling solo. For several years I parked my car in a Park & Ride, then caught a shuttle to the gates. I found that it was easier to first drive to the curb, check my bags, then go to the Park & Ride, thus eliminating a struggle with heavy bags on the shuttle. Thank God for friends Debbie and Kent who allow me to leave my car at their place in Raleigh and who provide me with a ride to and from the airport. Normally my flights out of Raleigh number no more than one a year. This year, I’ve already flown to California twice.

When Debbie and Kent leave me alone in their house I like to take advantage of that time by painting their rooms. I should say, doing watercolors of their rooms. The East Bedroom will become the third painting I’ve gifted to them for their gracious hospitality and airport limo service. Maybe I should put a bumper sticker on my car that reads “Have brush, will travel.”

California interior

My friend Chris’s, 6x9" watercolor

There is only one bed in my life that I can say I fell in love with at first sight. I saw it in a shop in Edina, Minnesota. It was a wood bed, antiqued with light yellow paint, was oversize, and more than I could afford. I’ll be dang if my friend Chris didn’t buy another version of the same bed. Same company, same oversize kind of bed that you know would, upon sleeping on it, turn any of your dreams into a fairytale. The next time I visit her, I am going to paint that room which became my guest room when I was a guest at her house last month. So because of time constraints, I had a choice, paint her bedroom or paint her living room.
Here you see the lovely living area of her house which overlooks a lagoon in Corte Madera, CA. Note the wave calligraphy in the upper right. Chris’s house, like so many places I stay, is filled with wonderful art and collectibles. It’s a treat to snoop around her house, filled with artful objects that so noticeably and immediately say Chris.
p.s. Chris asked me to add, “Many of the charming collectibles come from you, gifts over the 30+ years of our friendship!”