This time of the year

This time of the year is always a little bittersweet for me.

I lost my father-in-law two days before Christmas to a massive heart attack and my dad, 3 days after Christmas to mesothelioma (lung cancer caused by asbestos).
One was taken quickly and one lingered slowly before being taken from my life.

I go through many emotions and tears at Christmas. The emptiness of death is too much to bear at times, but two beautiful, young grandchildren are helping to fill the voids. Watching them wide-eyed in wonderment of the tree, the lights, and the gifts helps to lessen the pain. Too many ornaments are bunched up on single branches of the tree. Christmas window stickers brings smiles and laughter to all that see my "beautiful" holiday decorations.

There is truly truth in the phrase, "God bless the little children." Children bring joy and laughter to an otherwise lonely heart.

May you experience children in your lives whether they are yours, your grandchildren or neighbors. They are truly a joy to behold.

Little Treasures from the Sea

I love to collect little treasures from the sea when I visit Florida or any of the islands I have scuba'd at. (is THAT a real word !! ha!).
I have large Mason jars filled with shells, but the one I like to show off is one that is filled to the brim with white, brown, green and aqua colored sea glass.

On browsing the internet one day, I came across the website of a delightful woman, Danielle Renee, who lives on the east coast, collects seaglass and creates the most beautiful jewelry from it. I had a larger piece of aqua glass that I thought would look splendid as a ring, so I contacted Danielle and she made an exquisite ring that I am proud to wear.

Along with selling her jewelry, Danielle attends Sea Glass Festivals and has tremendous knowledge of how to find and identify glass shards; the proper care of your sea glass jewelry and too much more to mention here. Danielle was also featured in the April 2009 issue of OCEAN magazine. You can find her ad in Coastal Living magazine also.

I hope that you will take the time to visit Danielle's website http://www.jewelrybydaniellerenee.com/ and find your special ring, bracelet or necklace from the sea.

Watercolor palette

The colors of the rainbow are evident in my watercolor palette. Rainbows aren't as messy as my palette is, but you can see that I love bright colors. They are very evident in my underwater paintings, both watercolor and oils.

Whenever I am having a "blue" day because of the dreary, rainy weather outside, I open my box of paints and I immediately take on a brighter attitude.

The painting of the waterlilies was inspired by a trip to St. Germain, in northern Wisconsin where I took close-up photos from a row boat of the lilies and pads popping through the water in East Bay.

SHARK !!!!!!

Last Monday, the 19th of Oct, I returned from a great diving trip to Nassau with 3 of my dive buddies: Cindy, Deena and Larissa.

I usually schlep around my dinosaur of an underwater SLR camera, but decided to wait until I got to our destination to rent a modern 12MP digital camera. Wow !!! I fell in love with it immediately. It was great to see what I had just shot and delete and re-do if I didn't like it.

I think I had the most fun with this camera on our 2 shark dives. We went to a place called Shark Wall, where for some reason, Caribbean Reef Sharks are plentiful. We dove side by side peacefully with the sharks. Once in awhile, they would curiously come nearer, but they mostly just held their distance. They have no intention of acting on their reputation...........being killing machines. I wish that more people could understand this about sharks. Long before Hollywood and Jaws, sharks got a bad rap. I'm not saying that there are not times that they do strike a human, but it is mostly NOT intentional. The silhouette of a surfer on a board or the splashing in shallow water that mimics a wounded fish, are just some of the reasons a shark may strike.

But anyway, this is about my wonderfully, emotional dives with the sharks. It never fails that I get tears in my eyes at the sight of them. They are one of the most beautiful creatures in the ocean.

Since I am back on dry land, all I have left are the memories and my photos.I hope you enjoy them.

Week 5- Airbrushed fish bowl

Although I love living in Wisconsin, I sometimes think I am living in the wrong part of the country. Since I learned to scuba dive in 1992, I have had fish running through my mind. I dream about diving, talk about diving and my paintings are usually of the underwater persuasion.

When told to buy a piece of glass for a project in airbrush class, I unconsciously bought a fish bowl !! This is what I ended up doing with it :

It glows beautifully with a small candle placed inside.

Silk Painting added to my resume

Along with all of the fun I am having in my airbrushing class, I decided to take a mini-course at UW-Parkside on Silk Painting.

How fun was this ??!! I am going to need another lifetime to work on all of the projects that I have running through my head. I am not, by any means, giving up on my watercolor and oil painting, I just wanted to expand my horizons. I'm very pleased with my first attempt at silk painting!

Airbrush class....week 5

Well, I would really have liked for you to see my project from this week's class, but I wasn't finished with it yet. We have now graduated to working on glass. I have a round shaped clear fishbowl........and you guessed it ! I'm airbrushing an underwater scene !! Fishes swimming in an aqua ocean, shaded in ultramarine blue and yellow seaweed.
I hope to have it posted by next week.

We have decided to extend the 6 week schedule for 2 more weeks.......8 classes in all.