My Pink House – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor

“Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else’s life forever.”
– Margaret Cho

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

My Pink House

This is a little corner of my house.  There is a cliff on the east side and a lake on the west side so it’s hard to photograph.  I took this photo standing on the cliff.  I’ll try to do another one, showing more of the house.

I finally have my computer back.  I do not have my vinyl cutter back.  I have an old plotter and may have to upgrade.  So the sign shop is still in a holding pattern… as it has been for two weeks.  It feels good to at least be able to get orders in the system and do the design work.  I can’t wait until this is all resolved and I’m functioning at 100% again.  🙂

About Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho, the outspoken Korean-American comedian and actor, made television history as the first Asian-American with her own TV series, All American Girl. She was born in 1968 in San Francisco and has mined her life for extremely successful one-woman shows, including I’m the One That I Want and Notorious C.H.O., both of which spawned albums, movie versions, and books. When not touring with her comedy, Cho works now in Hollywood as both an actress and a director.

A Vintage Car and a Glacial Norwegian Lake

“Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.”
– James Bryant Conant

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

A Vintage Car and a Glacial Norwegian Lake – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor and Ink

I had fun with this one.  It’s a combo of two photographs from Rozzi at WetCanvas.  The doors to the car were open in the photo and there were two guys standing on the running boards.  I left all that pesky stuff out.  Oh, and of course the car was black.   🙂

About James Bryant Conant

James Bryant Conant, the American chemist and educator, is known both for his role in the Manhattan Project — which developed the first nuclear weapons — and for his innovative tenure as president of Harvard University. Harvard had been a finishing school for the rich; Conant turned it into a world-class research university and created aptitude tests to choose students by ability. These tests became the basis for the SAT. He was born in Massachusetts in 1893 and died in New Hampshire in 1978.

Jenny Lake Watercolor on Masa

“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”
– Will Rogers

Jenny Lake – 7″ x 10″ Watercolor on Masa

Jenny Lake is in the Grand Teton National Park, in Wyoming.  I took this picture when I was there in 2009.  I also sat on the edge of that lake and did some watercolor plein air paintings.  It was not as clear and bright as usual, because they had some fires north of the park and the smoke was making the sky hazy and the mountain views a little muted.

This painting was fun to do on the masa paper.  I figured I better practice painting mountains, since I’ll be back in the Tetons in a couple weeks and I intend to do a lot of plein air.  It’s going to feel so good to get into the cooler mountain air.  It was 114 degrees here yesterday, not counting the heat index.  Whew!

I tried to find some photos of Jenny Lake on the web and this is probably the best.  Most of the links went to the lodge and you don’t want to see a bunch of photos of a motel, right?

About Will Rogers

American humorist Will Rogers was considered the Mark Twain of his generation. He was born in 1879 in Oklahoma, of Cherokee descent, and left school early to become a cowboy. In South Africa his showy roping skills won him a job in a traveling Wild West show, and he quickly switched over to vaudeville and film acting roles. He wrote six books and 4,000 syndicated columns. An avid flier, he died in a plane crash in 1935.

Mushroom Field

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche

Mushroom Field

9″ x 6″ Mixed Media on Yes!

I painted these little mushrooms on Yes! Primed Cotton.  I remember Yes! being more absorbent, but I have had this pad for quite a while and it was not accepting my watercolor very well.   Since I was unable to get the affect I wanted, I outlined it in Sharpie and then splashed some acrylic on it.  It ended up being fun to do.  This is the first of three paintings I did from this same reference.

Okay, now I want to show you what it looked like on Lake Eufaula, Oklahoma on Saturday evening.  The weather was perfect and I believe we had record crowds for the Memorial Day weekend.  This is just one little part of the lake, but there was a Cross Canadian Ragweed concert about to start at the outdoor amphitheater next to the marina.    These folks saved between $25 and $75 a head.    I took this picture from our boat (as we were heading in to the dock, to put it away and go home).   We just aren’t tough enough to hang with the twenty-something crowd.    🙂

About Friedrich Nietzsche

Controversial German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is best known for his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Born in 1844 near Leipzig, he renounced Prussian citizenship in 1869, remaining stateless the rest of his life. In his work, he argued against the concept of an omnipotent deity, believing in a “will to power,” a drive toward creativity that could explain everything from natural phenomena to human behavior. He suffered from insanity, possibly syphilis-induced, for his last ten years. He died in 1900.

Before the Tourists

“You have to take it as it happens, but you should make it happen the way you want to take it.”
— Old German Proverb

Before the Tourists

9″ x 12″ Watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb. coldpress

As you know,  this is a huge painting for me!  The references had a bizzilion beach chairs and a fence.  I decided to see what it looked like before the tourists came.  He he he

Speaking of tourists… this weekend is our annual Bucket Run on Lake Eufaula.  The sailboats come to play!  I hope to be out there somewhere with my camera.  There is just something about sailboats!  I’m sure it’s a lot more work than they make it seem.  It’s so calming to watch them floating on the lake, like they don’t have a care in the world.

The festivities begin Friday night May 21st with registration starting at 8 pm and continuing until? They’ll have live music by Bluefish, a wine tasting hosted by Sailing Horse Winery and lots of sailboats. The race for the bucket kicks off at 10 am on Saturday the 22nd. Saturday night they’ll feed pizza and wings to all the crews at Evergreen Marina .On Sunday the 23rd the line opens once again at 10 am for the run back to Eufaula Cove. Awards will be handed out at 4 pm at Gators!  For more info click here.

German proverbs represent one of the finest cultures in Europe. They have a very practical approach and the humor present in some of them gives them a bit of a sweeter taste so to speak. However the sharp realism in some of them is pretty blunt and will not pet anyone, embodying somehow the German direct way of speaking. Nonetheless the German proverbs will pitch your thinking and make you consider some new views.

As an old German proverb says “A country can be judged by the quality of its proverbs”; when it comes to Germany there is plenty to say. Given to the fact that over 40 million Americans are of German ancestry, it is obvious how due to their emigration in the United States of America their words of wisdom inheritance was translated into English, therefore, some of these proverbs may seem familiar.

Spoken directly or with humor, the German proverbs are a great source of thought provoking ideas; see more in the article here.

Mega Frolic – September 16, 2009

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”

– Lao-Tzu

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Mega Frolic
4″ x 5″ Watercolor

This boat portrait was done for my husband, for our 7th anniversary, tomorrow. I hope he likes it.

About Lao-Tzu

The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu is believed to have lived in the 4th century B.C. Little is known about him, but it is likely that he wrote the Tao te Ching, the foundation of Taoist philosophy, and engaged Confucius in debate, honing both men’s belief systems. His name means either “old master” or the “old child,” and one legend says he was born with white hair after spending 80 years in his mother’s womb.