Open Market Day

Took my morning walk to the open market, it is sunny, warm and feeling very lucky to be here. I noticed I bought "cultured milk" yesterday by mistake, it does not go well in coffee, so now I have a full pot of coffee I just can not drink without milk. I walked to town with Katherine, we made a deal, I would give her some olive oil and she would give me some milk. Well, I am getting better. Carlos just gave me a couple shots of what tasted like Anise, for my cough of course. I feel better already! Whewww. He told me that the cultured milk is very good to drink alone and good for your stomach, so I kept some and gave the rest to him, it was again an even deal.

I have decided that my first painting will be of this wonderful papaya tree right outside the door. I have two large papayas ripening on my counter right now, but I did buy a ripe one at the market, I was longing for the taste of one this morning. So on my to paint, after finishing up my "judges statement", (I feel so important today) for awards for EG Art Club Members Show. Now I can move on to what I love to do, paint.

Colony Revisited

I made it! Still trying to get rid of an annoying cough...settling though into this beautiful country. Little cloudy today, but so am I. The casita is very spacious and Carlos and Bernarda are collecting things I need here to make it comfortable for the next few months. An extra table, chairs and kitchen stuff. Carlos took me to do some grocery shopping. Bernarda took us to a new bakery in town, I bought a sweet bread, that weighs a ton. I will wait til tomorrow to taste it, I have no taste buds today from coughing. This afternoon I had a nice little coffee talk with others that are here now in colony, Patricia, Kirsten, Roxy, Katherine, Bernarda, more are arriving this weekend. I understand that a group from RISD will be here in January. How do you like that...go figure. So I have been puttering around today, not feeling up to par yet. But am getting excited about painting this weekend. Changing the furniture around to my liking today and will have to decorate a little too. Roxy will be giving us yoga classes soon, the open market in the morning will be a ritual on Saturdays.

Count Down

So, a couple more days and I will be set-up in CR for a long winter. Ready to paint, draw, create, explore, discover new patterns, immerse in the CR culture, and absorb the warmth. My checklist today is
Judge the EG Members Show
Put together bills
Laundry
Clean Window boxes for winter
Call NHP
Take care of ticket for car insurance
Take Hudson to speech therapy

Ready

I am feeling anxious about going to Costa Rica this year, leaving the new house and Cal, leaving Aja & little Hudson during a difficult time, away from friends and the holidays, packing everything I think I need, worrying about M&D in FL. mmmm Another week I will be in Cuidad Colon, Costa Rica. Hudson will be four Dec15th, gee where did the time go. I quess I am feeling a bit quilty about going, leaving RI, escaping from daily tasks and responsibilities. What am I doing? That warm weather mmmm will make the arthritis feel better though and maybe this cough will go away. to be continued

Bamboo and Wind
watercolor
31 x 39

The Art League of Rhode Island Members Show
Bristol Art Museum
October 24th-November 16th, 2008

Home Sweet Home

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes...I see some space. Good thing we have an attic. Much smaller with furniture in it...but feels cozy. It's becoming a nice little place, but takes time to let things find there place here, I have tried so many different things on walls and furniture in different places. Maybe another month I might have it all figured out, then I'll change it again. So much to do, fix the leaks in shower stall...paint the hutch white, find a smaller dinner table, get rid of one leather chair, bolt small cabinets over my desk area, decide on kitchen floor and wall color. I am off to hang curtains.

Monhegan Island, Maine, USA

Just returned from Monhegan Island, Maine, an enchanting island off the coast of Maine. Rocky coasts, quaint cottages, beautiful sunsets, lobsters, artists and me. I painted everyday with friends, Susan, Madeline, Mike, Jeanne, and Anne.
www.lorrainebromley.smugmug.com

Updates

Photographs: www.lorrainebromley.smugmug.com

Honorable Mention Award
Beach Treasure, a watercolor
Art of the Ocean State
Wickford Art Association

Painting in Garden
Wickford in Bloom Walking Tour
Saturday, July 19th, 2008 11-3

Artists along Main Street
East Greenwich Main Street Stroll
Simon Says Cafe
July 11th, 2008 5-8

Exhibits
July 9th-August 2, 2008, Beach Rose Cafe
July 11th-August 2, 2008, Simon Says Cafe
July 1- July 25, 2008 "Art of the Ocean State", Wickford Art Association
July 3-25th, 2008 "Out of the Blue", Attleboro Art Museum


Classes
Friday Morning Watercolor
Suite 208 Shady Lea Art Complex
North Kingstown, RI

Workshops
February 13-28, 2009
New Inspirations in Watercolor
Cuidad Colon, Costa Rica

Others TBA
Monets Garden. France
Colors of Greece, Crete, GR
Provence in Summer, France
Wickord Watercolor, RI, USA

Press Release

Violet Roots

watercolor by Lorraine Bromley
Also, more news, I am so excited to have become a member of the Art Legue of RI (ALRI), and in the very good company of wonderful artists in this area. I received my letter of acceptance this week and I look forward to their exhibits and community activities of this well received group. Bristol Art Museum, ALRI Members Show, October, 2008 www.artleagueri.org

Acceptance in Attleboro Museum's 35th Anniversary show "Out of the Blue", a national juried show, where over 800 entries and 108 were chosen, Violet Roots, (watercolor shown here), will be on exhibit there July 3rd-July 25th. www.attleboromuseum.org

Art Workshop: New Inspirations in Costa Rica

Watercolor Workshop
Date: February 13-28th, 2009

This will be my 3rd year painting in Costa Rica. I would love to share it and show you the wonders of this beautiful Central American country. I paint in watercolor, use photography as a reference tool and love to draw with markers, colored pencils and experiment with mixed media. My art is influenced by the rolling patchwork fields, flora and fauna inhabiting this magical landscape in of Costa Rica. It's the colors, the weather, the peacefulness, the air is sweet and soft. The various climates of the rainforests, the jungles, the beach, city, country, farms and waterfalls give me so much inspiration to paint. Join me next year and experience Costa Rica with me.

Cost: $1100.00

10 day workshop includes workshop, accommodations, breakfast, welcome dinner, Farewell Dinner, transportation for workshop travel.

Each day there will be a focus for painting inspiration, art journaling assignment and demonstrations, critiques, studio tour, museum visit, an overnight weekend in another part of country with experienced tour guide.

Not included

RT Air Fare (BOS-SJO)
Entrance fees to selected sites
Some Meals

Interested artists should email me at lorrainedesigns@cox.net

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Just passing through

I did not want to leave CR....I am quilty, yes. I have not been journaling, I do not know why. I keep forgetting actually. Right now I can not sleep, it is 12:30am and I am at my Mom & Dad's house in Florida. Flight was not bad at all, just feels like a wasted day. I did some drawing with all the waiting for planes, in the restaurant, and looking at rivers and farmland from up in the plane, so I quess it was not wasted. I doodled with some pencil designs on my new square banana paper.

I plan on doing more doodling here in Florida with Hudson Jai. Alot of swimming too, I hope and playing. We are going to play the whole week. I can't wait. Coloring and playing and playing some more, and maybe play even more. We have toy trucks and a make believe roadway and coloring books, crayons, puzzles here at great-grandmas casa and we will practice our spanish too. Maybe he will teach me some.

A Day of Rest

No Way. Cal has left early this morning, of course in kind of a rush, couldn't find his colones, he forgot his medicines. And he did not want to leave so soon, felt like he just got here. Especially after being so sick on the first part of his trip here. Well we will be back next year for sure. He got a taste of CR and we had a really nice time considering everything. We went to Essentia Restaurant (my favorite right now) for a romantic dinner, went to open markets, explored & walked the property trails, did some work too (very little).

Now I am off to the Pacific again for a catamaran boat adventure. Chantal, who lives here and I are driving to the shore and hoping on a catamarn for the half day tour, snorkeling, beach and lunch and be back at colony in early afternoon. Oh boy more pictures. Gotta run...

Playa Carillo

Back from the beach. It was an adventure, ocean was great for body surfing, shallow water for much of the beach and great tumbling waves we rode all the way in. Beautiful! When we arrived to Carillo, Cal was very sick, on the verge of pneumonia, called a doctor and he gave him a shot and prescribed some antibiotics and congestion medicine and he was feeling better on Tuesday, so we spent the day on the beach, drew pictures in the sand, went for a delightful lunch with Bernarda, her Mom, Dilia and her daughter Isabella, we had a great time with Isabella, she is 5 yrs old. Bernarda took us to another beach, Playa Islita, little artisan village in the middle of nowhere, through rivers and jungle and then had just enough time to walk up through a jungle path to see the sunset over Playa Carillo, along the way we saw howling monkeys up in the trees and when we reached the top, it was 360 of the most beautiful scenery. We then had a wonderful dinner at the place we stayed at, the Colibri. It was an Argentinean restaurant connected to the cabinas. The six of us had a great time, Susan, Bernarda, Isabella, Dilia, Cal & I. Then on Wednesday we headed back to the colony. Then I got sick again. But feeling better today, Friday, and looking forward to the last week here in Cuidad Colon.

Adventure Continues

I have been showing Cal around Cuidad Colon (he is feeling much better today) and we went to my favorite restaurant "Essentia" tonight. This is the restaurant I painted a design on the wall back in Dec. He loved it, it has a special ecklectic ambience that is magical at night with fancy chandeliers that have been enhanced with ornamaents and cozy corners with curtains and white lights among jungle-like fauna and the sounds of the aviary in close distance. Really nice delicious dinner.
So, Monday we are off to Nicoya Pennisular to the beach where will meet Susan and then Bernarda on Wednesday for the ride back to the colony, so we will be out of touch for a few days. Will get back to blog on Thursday.

Anticipation

The anticipation of Cal's arrival was killing me. Cleaned up things around the studio, to make room for him, nice of me huh? Went to town to buy him some juice, cause I plan on pumping into him when he gets here, and some vanilla ice cream, ice cream always makes you feel better. Only vanilla. Came back from town and we had booked a model for figure drawing session for an hour. That was a great exercise for me, I love the female figure and Cecelia has a wonderful big body, and beautiful Costa Ricence face. She was a fantastic model for us.

Nancy, collage artist showed me her works that she is showing next month at the National Gallery here next month. One piece has handmade paper beads hanging on it. She said she didn't have time to make enough beads that would have finished it off nicely, so I said lets all get together one night over a glass of wine and make some so you can finish your piece. So last night we set-up to make paper beads and made more than what she needs. She was tickled that we all made them for her and we felt good to help her out. Cool beads!

Carlos and Christine drove early to Limon on the Caribbe, a 7 hour drive to the coast to look at some land Carlos would like to preserve. He has some big plans to try to keep it from being sold to big hotel/condo type developers, it is a problem right now in CR, more and more of the jungle is being destroyed for hotels etc..., it is not so good

I looked up Cal's flight ticket and found out the flight was an hour late, and I am glad I put up a sign at gate to what number to call so I could let him. Good thing I didn't wait down at the gate. So the taxi came about 11:00pm and he made it. A little under the weather, but not for long, because he will be soaking in pura vida here today.

Ayudo, eschucho, estudio, pintoro y viajo...

I help, I listen, I study, I paint and I travel,....I swim, I cook, I speak, I look. These are my words for spanish homework this week..verbs.

Another adventure up in the forest behind the colony, I had never been on such an extensive walk up there, just on the driveway up there, but today Carlos took Christina and I up there, Talia joined us, colony dog, the cutest cocker spaniel in Costa Rica who eats geckos. Yes... we followed a way up to the very top of the mountain where there is some condos being built, but when we reached the top it was spectacular, the wind was blowing. I was trying to take pictures and felt I was going to be blown off the mountain, so I sat down and took mucho pictures 360 degrees. And then I turned my head and a field of calendular in front of me, orange flowers, just a dream of a picturesque landscape. Unbelievable, really, so much to discover here just around the corner. It is always changing, walking up there is a different scene everyday, flowers, bananas, trees, & the butterflies up there, I saw a gigantic black butterfly today, it must have been as big as my head. My white pants got covered with little sticky seeds and thorns I needed to use a brush to get all the briars off. We will see if they will ever be clean again. I got spooked by an iguana up there too and the walk to town later on, we found a pequeno dead flattened lizard on the road, and Christina had the taxi stop so she could take it back to studio on the way home when we had too many bags of groceries to walk back with. I don't know what she is going to do with it, but I will give a full report when I find out.

Susan left for the pacific beach this morning by herself, we miss her already, she gave me some potion before she left that she bought for me, for my arthritis in my hands, you rub it on actual affected areas. She bought it from the "soap lady" at the open market, who also makes soap, go figure. Down here there are all kinds of remedies for things, all natural of course, and Christina is just as knowledgeble in this area of homepathic substances. This morning she was asking Carlos how to get Bushmaster, snake venom. I will get a full report on that too. TTYL

I am awake, energized and alive!

Christine, Susan & I had a figure drawing class this morning. Christine teaches figure drawing in Germany and it was a great experience, she challenged us, tomorrow a class with another model. Honing my drawing skills with the eye to hand. Experimenting with color and lines.

We had eculyptus in all our apartments today to help with all the throat problems that Susan & I are having, hers from a cold, mine from screaming the other day at the top of my lungs. Carlos came with branches of it to put in our studios. Anyway its coming back, the voice is coming back.
I am working on 13 -11 x 30 paintings, skipping around on all of them, almost finished with three. Whats the hurry, I am so happy with all but one of them, but I think I can make it better, the solution just has not come to me yet. I am working on titles for them, of course in espanol. Thinking about exhibiting in the National Museum here in San Jose next year and getting encouraged to do so. The logistics are frightening right now, but doable. Need about 10 more pieces to make a good representation of "PURA VIDA".

Have made arrangements with Bernarda about Cal's & my little side trip to the pacific today. Mon -Wed to the Playa Carillo, Nicoya Pennisular, about a 4-5 hour ride through some wonderful countryside to get to the most beautiful beaches on the Pacific

Stay on Course

Hudson Jai & Aja Jai 2007

Spanish class ... painting ...Multi-plaza...geckos...Cal coming to Costa Rica on Friday...Lunch with Alice & Barry...Susan's song, banana bread and tea, yellow flower, taxi, Nicoya property, sushi, Opal Dreams... Aja & new apartment...new pictures of Hudson Jai...painting, cleaning...beautiful necklace...picked flowers... focaccia...tree with colored bark, painting, painting, painting. making plans for a little trip to beach with Cal.