Love sick in paradise

Lonely pygmy kingfisher yearns for tweet from twitter bird

Acrylic on canvas, 9" x 12"

Off to a new home!

Harvest Moon, Hurricane Ridge. September 11, 2011

I am very pleased and honored that this painting was purchased in the spirit of a tribute to a longstanding, loving relationship that even sudden death could not destroy.

Presto, change-o!

This old expressionist nude, reworked several times, met up with a new concept.

A sheet of address labels with the corners peeled back randomly, inspired a new version.

The nude, now veiled, offers more comfortable viewing and possibly provokes a little curiosity.  Now I don't have to feel so badly for the poor model!

New Work May 2012

Contemplation     16 x 20 acrylic on canvas
Didn't know a "Super Moon" was coming but woke up one morning  with the idea of cows  leaping playfully through the night sky and across a big golden full moon.  After sketching it all out I went right to the canvas and this is what happened:  "Contemplation."  Maybe a more energetic version with mad and/or blissful cows flying through space is next.  The Pacific Northwest sky is full of surprises, especially in Kitsap country.

Who?


A fluffy but stern owl clutches its perch  and surveys the landscape.

Moving On


With an open heart

Definition 2

fugue [fjuːg]
n
1. (Music / Classical Music) a musical form consisting essentially of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below the continuing first statement
2. (Psychiatry) Psychiatry a dreamlike altered state of consciousness, lasting from a few hours to several days, during which a person loses his memory for his previous life and often wanders away from home
[from French, from Italian fuga, from Latin: a running away, flight]
fuguelike adj

Spring Transformed

By the calendar, it has been Spring for three weeks now but it still feels like winter. Can't do much about that but a sudden urge made me re-work this old painting from the series of big pensive eyes in many colors. Formerly known as Spring, she is now La Primavera. Please click on the second photo for a better look. The detail doesn't show in the small image.

The Buddha Emerged

How a painting evolves!



Starting with an idea of color combinations,

adding some drips and swipes with the palette knife and then suddenly seeing a Buddha form appearing out of the rudimentary images -- a new painting came into being. I added it to my display at the gallery and within hours, a red dot appeared!

Kitsap Country goes to Stillwaters Auction

Want to bid? Auction is Feb 26 at the longhouse in Suquamish. This painting, 16 x 12 inches, acrylic on canvas, with its vibrant colors expresses the joy of a crisp, clear autumn day in the country, Kitsap Country, that is. That's Mt. Constance, in the Olympic Mountains, in the distance.

New: Piece of my Heart

Winter Love, a 12 x 12 acrylic painting on view at Front Street Gallery in Poulsbo, $95, plus individually crafted Valentine's Day cards with this same image and different quotes on love by distinguished writers.

Hubbard Squash and Friends

I just rediscovered the built in camera on my laptop. But the pictures turn out mirror image. Does anyone know how to turn them around?

The other title for this painting is "Waiting for the Cleaver". A group of innocent beings huddled together for comfort, trusting that all is well, oblivious to the clandestine deal-making going on in private meetings that will ultimately slice 'em and dice 'em for continuing corporate profits.

Change of Plans

Dental emergency intervened, D went to town by himself (after snapping above photo at 4 something AbloodyM) and I slept until the phone rang at mid-morning. Bliss! I did some toilet shopping online and found a very negative reference to the one we were considering, a reminder to be wary when HD is our first stop for shopping. OTOH, the high-end Toto line certainly is seductive, but for a humble little cabin, not quite in the budget. Here's a tiny crop from one I snapped waiting for the ferry last Saturday on the way to the latest evolution of "I Love Being Abroad" by Julie Cascioppo. The mama gull has been nesting for at least 10 days in this spot where hundreds of passengers pass by daily.

She's kinda hard to see up there in this photo.

Winter's End

One of the pieces I'll be showing next month in Kingston. I painted this because I love daffodils so much I can never get enough of them and tried to imagine fields and rows going on forever.

April 25 -- Sold!

Picnik Puttering

I was playing around with the doodle tool on picnik.com to get an idea of how to rework this photo as a painting. It was actually quite helpful. I think tomorrow morning will be an excellent time to get started on the 24 x 24 canvas.

Mid-January Blahgging

In an email from the Nature Conservancy I just saw some very beautiful nature photos, finalists and honorable mentions for 2008. You can vote on your favorites, but you can't vote on the honorable mentions, and that's where my favorites are. The link is over there in the upper right hand corner of this page. See what you think. l love the White Sands, Butterfly and starry sky at Arches.

Do we have wood to burn now! What a wood pile! Jake even built an extension to the shed to cover it all. I was worried we'd have to resort to electric heat this winter, but not now! Neighbors gave us very well-seasoned wood they no longer needed, plus we actually bought a cord from a local guy, plus Christine shared her secret source from a golf course in Seattle with us, so that will be good for the future along with the very knotty pine David hauled over from Queen Anne Hill, plus all the stuff we've logged right here and all the stuff yet to be logged . . . keeping warm is serious and time-consuming business around here.

It's slow time for sales at the gallery, but we're busy with social events. We're having a community-wide inaugural celebration on the 20th, we're busy seeking out new members, and we've planned the first in a series of artist coffee and talk times for Feb 5, 3 pm. It's a good excuse to get out of the studio and see who's doing what these days.

Today I finished painting around 3 and as it was low tide, I took a long walk on the beach, further than ever, not too cold since the wind was at my back and not blowing too hard. Saw several great blue herons and wished for binos to check out the smaller water birds. Eventually came to a steep road that led up to the road that connects to our road, passing through the gate with all the stern warnings not to trespass on private property. A couple of kids said it didn't matter. I didn't think so, either.

Netflix streams dvds for Mac users now -- I tried it out tonight with season 2 of 30 Rock. Love that wacky humor!

Autumn #4

Autumn #4
Originally uploaded by JuliMil

I'll be having a show in April and I'm thinking the paintings will be grouped into the four seasons, either by subject or by colors. Now the autumn landscapes are done, time to get started on winter. That will be challenging as it's so bleak around here this time of year.