I have received some personal messages from readers who have liked and/or identified with my memoir, but now I am requesting that  any of you who have read my book to please add a comment on the Amazon page. http://tinyurl.com/9s37z7y 

Still reworking

What's my name? 16" x 16"

"Oriental Jewel" 12" x 12"

I am pulling more and more old paintings out of the stacks and working over them. With encaustic, it just seems to make them more interesting and luminous. Here are two I finished today. I have many more unsatisfactory paintings that are waiting to be saved. At this rate, I can keep busy for many weeks.

I can't think of a name for the orange painting. Can anyone suggest a title?

Seems to be a re-do time in my life. Still working over old paintings that didn't stand the test of time and now I am re-photographing older work whose images disappeared with the last hard drive crash, so I'll post some of them.

The marching band got the festivities started - after the fire crackers before dawn

The dancers were getting ready for a long afternoon of dancing

The closed street offered a playground for children

 A contact in costumes.

My usually quiet neighborhood bursts into life and noise one weekend a year. They close off the street for 2 days and the party continues well into dawn, including fire crackers starting at 5 am. I'm not sure what they are celebrating, but I love watching the dancers, and only once a year, it is entertaining.

I wish I could include the sound!

Free eBook

Starting tomorrow, August 13, I am offering a free download of my eBook,  Fireworks at Dawn, An Artist's Memoir. If you do not have a Kindle, you can get a free app at Amazon and download the book on your computer, phone, iPod or iPad  This offer is good for 5 days, so if have an interest in my life, here is your chance. http://tinyurl.com/9s37z7y  

I have a lot of older paintings in my stacks that I feel are not great. Some times I leave them alone for months or even years and then pull them out when I feel inspired to re-work them. Here is one I worked on yesterday.  This actually is the 3rd re-work.

I am
 packing these paintings today to ship to the Encasutic Art Institute in New Mexico.
When I was in Oregon in June, I showed one of my daughters images of this series and she said that they didn't look as if I did them. I do get into a "zone" when I am working on a series and when it is over, it is over. Now I am working on another figurative piece. It is different from anything I have done before.