I see inspiration everywhere, I finally went to a site on a hillside below the colony, where a huge, tree stands with 5 tire swings hanging beneath it. It was inviting. Took some great photos, if I say so myself found some red ginger flowers along the way that I picked and added to the one I bought at shop. Of course I was looking for stuff for ornamentation for xmas tree too. Look at my pocket! I finally started a full sheet (22 x 30) painting of the bamboo series, having a ball with that one and working on many other series at the same time in smaller versions until one just says "paint me big". I have so many wonderful photos to work from and still have 2 weeks left. I have started to put photos on cd's now, don't want to run out of space here.
The open market was today in Colon, went to a great restaurant tonight, I had a tenderloin cooked in coffee sauce with rice & squash medley & salad, then Susan & I split a banana flambe for dessert. mucho bien!!! Bananas growing wild all around us, so a banana a day is in order. I think that is going to be my next series. I got bit by a bee today too after a dip in pool, in 3 places on my arm, boy did that sting. Vitamin E cured it in a couple hours.
P.S. Paste paper came out really well, I will use it for my hibiscus series, just seems to be the right colors.

Hola!!
It is starting to look alot like Christmas. I found a beautiful tree branch (Carlos cut it for me) for a Christsmas tree, and Susan I have had some fun creating ornaments, when we find something on the ground. Stick a thread on it and hang it on the tree, its pretty funny. But looks great!! leaves, chili peppers, pods, flowers, a bracelet turned into a wreath, las amigas will be putting something on the tree. I have another gecko in the apartment now, he got in when I came in the door last night, her name is, "Gotit", the 3 amigos de gecko now in apartment. Tomorrow is the festival of lights in San Jose, about 30 minutes from here and we are planning to go early because large crowds are expected. In morning is open market, in Cuidad Colon, we will walk down at 8am together. Looking forward to that for picture taking mostly. Maybe buy some flowers and fruit.

Susan & I and a dog Macy took a walk on the property, we figured Macy would scare away any wild creatures and protect us. She did protect us. Trip to the mall was neccessary today, I bought a microphone for computer, so if anyone wants to talk to me though voice, download Skype. My screen name on Skype in lorrilorri, www skype.com. We also visited the festival in Colon which has been going on all week, small village setting in square, some crafts, jewelry, clothes and christmas concerts every night, and fireworks. Seems weird to have fireworks, with all the wildlife here, it is not very sensitive to them being that CR is so eco-aware. One of our projects here as a group is to get a recycling program in order, with the help of the University of Peace, here in Colon. Will not be too much effort, but something we all believe in.

I am still drawing everyday, from nature and from pictures I have taken, by viewing them on the monitor here, its been such a wonderful tool. Dina & Susan and I made paste paper last night, like finger painting on paper. Wonder how they will look tomorrow after they dry. I'll use them for backgrounds this week.

Isidro's Bull, mixed media on board, 4 x 9

Buenas Noches
What an interesting evening, we met a very well-known Costan Rican artist, Isidro Con Wong at his studio/home tonight, he only spoke Spanish but we had an interpreter, his son and Dina can understand alot of Spanish, she was a big help. He had huge paintings of landscapes that included indigineous trees, bulls, mountains and foliage of Costa Rica, they were poetic and colorful and now he is painting more abstract with figures from past paintings. He is the of son of Chinese immigrants and he tells his story with passion. I felt priviledged. www.isidroconwong.com.

Went to Cuidiad Colon for lunch break down the steep hill with Dina & ALice to have casada a typical rice, bean dish, which all the restaurants offer with their own signature flavors to it, various versions of salsa on the plate, in very large portions. The plate always looks like it would cost mucho colones, (lots of dollars) but it is the most inexpensive meal to eat here, whether with chicken or fish and beautifully arranged in the even the smallest snack/lunch sodas (small snack places). Bought a red ginger flower for $1.00 at shop. It then started to rain hard and we took a taxi back, it rained the rest of day until late afternoon. I had a little accident in the kitchen today, I was rinsing out some clothes in sink and I forgot that I left the water on, as I was drawing I heard water running but I thought it was the rain outside, it rains so hard here, but no the water was overflowing the sink, all over my studio, rivers were starting to form. Good thing this is a cement floor, all my towels are wet now too. No damage, don't tell anyone. I got alot of drawing done while the rivers were flowing.

We are making plans for our christmas party (s) too. One at the main house with Francisco and his friends and family and then one with only the artists and the people who live on the complex, all either staff or artists, friends. We will exchange a secret santa way.

Alice & I had our Spanish class this morning with Bernarda, played dominoes with spanish words, matching opposites, like tall and short, etc...great teacher! Will make one for Hudson Jai someday soon. Of course I took pictures today too and discovered the panorama feature on my camera. Will do more experimenting with it before I post anything.

Carlos is like our private tour guide, he loves nature and loves to take walks. So he plans these little excusions at times and takes a couple of us with him. I guess it was my turn today, Alice & I got in the taxi and we had no idea where we were going. Taxi drops the 3 of us off on a winding road and Carlos shows us the most unusual flowers at a friends home. We walked the road and found views and more birds, butterflies, trees. We all practiced our Spanish and Carlos practiced his English. We ended up at the"University for Peace". It was created as a Treaty Organization within the framework of the United Nations, it's mission is to "provide hunamity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings a spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress". I just took that from the brochure I recieved from there. Sorry I know its long, but complicated. Then we found the horse farm/stables where they offer riding tours with a guide. We booked one for next week. Very inexpensive $24.00 for 4 of us with a guide for about a 1.5 hours. The taxi came right on time back to pick us up and we stopped at a small woodworkers shop on the way back to colony, he made wooden bowls and spoons and other misc pieces.

My day was not as productive as others have been, but I experimented with some new backgrounds to paint on. Interesting results. Wednesday nights is dinner with the group at the main house with Francisco, the property owner. He was a professional soccer player for Costa Rica years ago for 12 years. So he says he is a celebrity. His english is funny. Now I know what I sound like in Spanish. We had a nice meal with fish, mashed potatoes (my favorite), carrots, broccoli and sat at long dinner table open to the outside overlooking the mountains. Air very was sweet tonight. Rained some of the day and cooled it off, it was very hot early afternoon.

"Bamboo Seranade", mixed media, 4 x 9

Hola Amigos

Had my first Spanish lesson, can you tell. I have some homework to do too.

Did pretty good. Great teacher! Starting to feel like home now, I am decorating my studio with some bamboo and some other little things, tired of looking at these blank walls today. I do have a lovely view from apartment with the biggest glass windows on one wall. The lemons or oranges or limes, just picked from tree outside my door. I can't tell you what they are, just that it is a citrus fruit. It's not yellow like a lemon but it tastes a little lemony, yet sweet, it looks like a lime when it is not ripe, and looks like an orange on the inside. One of those mysteries! Postcard on bottom (pictured above) I picked up at a shop in Quepos that supports "Kids Saving the Rainforest" campaign. It is a collage made by children, that has cut out letters from magazines, like a ransome note and then on bottom it has pictures of animals from Costa Rica. I loved it. Had to have it! Other postcard above is traditional CR motif handpainted on a wagon wheel.

My geckos are now keeping the spiders away I think, my friends "Goforit" & "Getit". I named them just now. "Goforit" is in the bathroom and "Getit" is behind the bookshelve.

"Goforit" & "Getit", watercolor 3.5 x 2.5

All of us women met down at the pizza restaurant, sat at an outside table under an arbor of fragrant flowers, beautiful night with a glowing nativity scene sitting in corner with white lights all over it and there was a white horse along side of the restaurant tapping with his right hoof on side street waiting impatiently for his owner to ride off on him. Lots & lots of things to look at, artwork on the walls from local artists, handmade jewelry & flowers surrounding even inside this little Italian restaurant. Also after dinner we all went for a short walk to the middle of town where they were having a young peoples holiday concert and craftsman around a christmas lit plaza. This was after a long day drawing out my next series and working on a large painting to finish up the bamboo series.

I have been thinking seriously about coming back in Dec/Jan again just to teach a workshop here and then stay on longer to paint, working on details with director now. TTYL

Manuel Antonio National Park
Buenas Tardes

I just wrote a really long story for the blog and now just lost it all, so starting over again. It has been raining on & off today, cools the day down alot. Planned my spanish class with Bernarda for 11:00 AM Tuesday with the girls here (3 of us), others are more advanced. Excited about that. Already went to Cuidad Colon down the hill for some groceries and nice walk, great coffee, boy was I achy this morning from all the walking over the weekend, up hills, steep staircases, and swimming, wow. I like the excersise without saying its excersise.

Weekend on the west coast was fabulous!!! (left to right, Alice, me, Susan & Dina) Went to Quepos and Manuel Antonio Park was our destination. Three & half hours on the autobus was great seeing the landscape of steep hills of sap green peaked mountains and cyan hills, cobalt skies. We arrived at the Hotel Plinio, a tree-house like place with hammocks and tropical flowers, plants with leaves as big as I am. The hotel built tall along a side of mountain out of tree trunks, only screened in rooms, it had 3 levels, living area on 1st, beds on 2nd, up spiral stairs to deck with hammock and view of ocean, about 10 mins by bus (50 cents to ride bus) to beach. Public beach was first to spend time on Friday afternoon, colorful wares of jewelry, sarongs, beach towels, very touristy. I did not expect that but then on Saturday we went to Manuel Antonio Park. Trails in the jungle with the most pristine, quiet beaches. Monkeys, iguanas, sloths (furry kola-like), racoons, & geckos. The monkeys were fascinating to watch fly through the trees and the sloths climbing very slowly up tree trunks. You could hear howling monkeys in the jungle there and at night at the hotel too. Eeiry. Got some great shots of the monkeys on the beach, they did steal some fruit from someones bags. Amazing to watch at such close distance these wild animals just roaming around, large iguanas too, sunning themselves like in a movie. I feel like I am in a movie.

I bought a poqueno piece of Chorotega pottery from local indigenous group at the beach. Earth-tones and traditional iguana design. Time for y boca (snack).

Gold n' Hibiscus, watercolor on paste paper, 9 x 4

Boy, this has been the best day. Swimming in the pool was refreshing and finally refilled this week, long narrow blue pool. All the dogs were around today too. Talia, Bong, & Forrest. A productive day. I am thrilled to be here, using all my skills to create art. There is a point I have reached that the skill is unconscious now and my mind can concentrate entirely on what I want to say. I will be leaving early morning for Quepos, on the pacific coast and will resume blog Sunday evening with more writing. Not a good idea to take laptop in knapsack traveling, it is not advised. I am not going there without my camera though. It will be all I can do keep it safe. I just remembered there is a tree I want to photograph on the hillside with 8 tire swings attached to it. Will get to it on Monday. Leftover pasta tonight and up early to get the bus to San Jose, then to Quepos. Chao!

"Bamboo Song", watercolor 4 x 9

Hola

Had a wonderful dinner this evening with six of us girls and Royce the director here at the colony. It was at the main house, which has a large cathedral ceiling/wall of glass to see the view of cuidad colon. It was a vegetarian lasagna with butter and cheeses, corn, peas, pasta, a salad with avocados of course, and a fried cheese, (looked like chicken, but it wasn't). We didn't even give Royce a moment to eat his dinner, we had so many questions about CR. He ended up taking it back to his apt. Conversation about day trips to volcanos and rainforests. About safety and logistic traveling, taxis vs buses and just our group vs tours, guides vs a taxi cab driver. Anyway, 4 of us are going to Quepos & Manuel Antonios. Is said to be quite beautiful. http://centralamerica.com/cr/quepos/quepos.htm
I did not have a productive day as far as alot of painting, I made a soup for the rest of week and went for a walk with Miriam, artist from CA, lived in RI for 8 years. We stopped for cafe before walking up the steepest hill with our groceries. With our poor Spanish we ended up with a cup of cafe each and a tall iced chai each, funny, we thought we just changed order, but instead we ordered dos (2) drinks each. Oh well. Stars are out tonight, moon is shining almost full. Last night it was full.

No rain today either. I took a long walk with Susan today. Up a steep dirt road and back again. I found a hummingbirds nest and some seeds that the Costa Rican people make jewelry out of. The hummingbird flew around me for a while, I was waiting for it to hover so I could take a photograph, it did not cooperate so I continued on my walk and on the way back I saw her again and finally she stopped singing and I looked up and saw her resting in a nest made up of spider webs. It was amazing. The property is well maintained, lots of fruit trees, I have been cooking with the lemons from the tree right outside my door. Went to the bustling city of San Jose tonight to support an artist that stayed here in the colony as well for a short time. She did some printmaking here. Interesting evening, spent most of it trying to figure out directions, streets are not marked and building names are not consistent, neither are the maps correct. But we found the gallery in the childrens museum, go figure. Anyway, got a ride home from Francisco, the manager of colony, instead of taking bus. San Jose was like NY city, huge city and the traffic incredible. No big buildings, just alot of people and traffic. They drive crazy (loco) here.

Did mucho painting today too. All day tomorrow, with a little walk to get groceries.

Wonderful day, temperature comfortable. Have not had any rain, but only sunny skies. I took a bus trip to village of Puriscal, (cost a whole $1.00 RT) a sweet, bustling village with the most beautiful vistas of the mountainsides along a 40 minute ride. Took some great pictures to work from. I have been painting alot with my two gecko friends keeping me company. Its better than having the tarantulas in the room like one of the other girls here had in her room the other day. I will welcome the geckos over those. However I would prefer they found another home. They are scared of me! SO, got alot of painting done so far, feeling wonderful, met some nice women, strong, talented & supportive of each other, great cooks too, in a beautiful environment. I am looking forward to tomorrow. Lots of energy here!!! Lots of unusual night sounds too?

Buenas Dias...Arrived in one piece and very late about midnight. Adjusting to the language here, I am having a little trouble, but settling in ok. Have only met the caretakers so far. Carlos took me around the property, showed me all the fruit trees. His brother Franseco took me to the market/mall for some things. Mall was huge. Today is election day and Sunday, so not many stores open, no liquor sales today either, chucks. The first thing I bought was the biggest box of kleenex, yes I have a headcold. The pool is being fixed today, it is in the 90's right now. All the fans are spinning, even the portable and a breeze here in the beautiful mountains of Costa Rica.

OK, it's the night before I leave for my next adventure, I am a little anxious tonight. I think I am ready now, one more trip to my studio to go over my list. I just threw the turkey away from the refridge, ate a bunch of brussels sprouts for dinner. I can hear the wind outside howling with rain, hope my flight is not postponed tomorrow with storms in the west. I do have enough to read in my carry-on, enough to think about. Geez this is weird traveling by myself to some other country. Am I crazy? Oh no another hot flash!

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Ready or not, here I come!
Well, I went to the art supply store and bought some more stuff I think I will need for my adventure in Costa Rica. (Julia & David WHite Artist Colony) Experimenting with different mediums that I bring with me will be an exciting challenge everyday while I'm there. I hope I can fit it all in my luggage. So now I am keeping a list of "to do's" for the next couple weeks too, to feel a little more comfortable, between paying bills and cleaning and packing and the holidays, now I am feeling a bit out of control. ahhhh

This is the website of the place in CR. Check it out and I will be updating my blog while I am there to let you know what I am up too there. Thanks for all your excitement and support in my anticipation, it is contagious.
http://www.forjuliaanddavid.org/Art-Colony-Facilities.html