I have a new painting almost completed and spent the day yesterday preparing panels for more.  It has been a long past season, but  newness is here.  Many years ago God spoke to my heart as I sat in my home in the Texas panhandle with 4 ft snow banks surrounding the house - 

"No matter how long the winter, nor how deep the snow, Spring Always Follows". 

Spring has followed and I am painting and at Peace.  I am posting a new painting, one of the "Captured" series, and will be painting more moving water. 

I posted a different artwork on the main page of my website called "Raising Lazarus" in honor of the day that celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus.

This new year also brought an invitation from the American Women Artists group for Signature status.  It is a prestigious group of which to be a Signature Member and an honor for me.

In those days I didn't eat seafood so missed out on one of the benefits of the coast.  There was a wonderful seafood restaurant on the island where we lived (Grand Isle) and the rest of the family loved to feast on all good things caught locally while I ate cheeseburgers and nothing but.

The exhibit at the Barnard's Mill Museum and Art Gallery was very enjoyable and I had a great room in which to hang.  I was blessed to reconnect with a number of friends and collectors.  We operated my studio/gallery in Glen Rose, Texas for about 10 years.  We were located in a wonderful, hundred year old building built of local fossilized stone.  A volunteer Bluebonnet plant filled the planter outside the front entrance the year before we left, and now the seeds have traveled and are blooming in the cracks in the sidewalk in front of the door.  It was a great place, with many visitors; squirrels that would climb down the stone walls occasionally, lizards of all sizes, a wren that built a nest in a planter inside the gallery, and the occasion small to medium sized snake.  A young opossum came calling one night while I was working late.  So many stories from those wonderful years......

I drove to the Dinosaur Valley State Park on Sunday morning to visit my river, the Paluxy, before the Sunday families arrived at the park.  What a beauty in the glow of the morning light.  What wonderful sounds as I stood in the midst of three small waterfalls listening to the flow with my eyes closed.

The painting in progress is more remembrance than real as so many times in the past I sat on a rock in the middle of the river as nightfall moved in, or at midnight, listening and taking in the peace.  This painting will be perhaps more dreamlike in it's completion - a collage of memories and experiences on my river.  SJo

"Getting Started" is a depiction of what often happens in my studio.  I am surrounded by windows, (too many, really) which make a wonderful environment for rooting plants.  As always I am intrigued with sunlight pouring through the antique ink bottle, and the beginnings of new roots.  Enjoy SJo

My daughter flies in from New York tomorrow morning and fun and much other celebration stuff is ahead.  We are looking forward to seeing her - it's been a while.