Tuesday, April 28, 2009

100 Best Movie Lines



Just to tickle your fancy and keep your brain recall function active.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Time After Time




Such a beautiful song inspired my painting entitled "Time After Time". Here it is performed by the Larry Franco Quartet with guest Michael Supnick.


Sunday, April 19, 2009

How Do You Keep the Music Playing




"How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" was the inspiration for this portrait of a young woman. By all counts, it is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. It was composed by Michel Legrand, with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman for the 1982 film Best Friends. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 55th Academy Awards.




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Friday, April 17, 2009

I Won't Send Roses




Giving a painting a title isn't always the easiest thing to do. This man is in love, but is at a loss as how to express it.

See if you think Michael Feinstein's "I Won't Send Roses" sums it up.




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Monday, April 13, 2009

Brazilian Girl --- She Surfs



Somehow I can't imagine packing a suitcase and heading for Brazil. However, our technorati entrepreneurial son is doing just that. He and his young family are planning a new life on the Brazilian island of Florianopolis. (Apparenly it is not only a great place to live but also a cool place to surf.)

It's funny, but I have this persisting notion. When I invest emotional energy and time in a place, it seems that eventually I am physically connected with that location. I have had this happen multiple times in my life.

Last summer I came across a Brasilian jazz pianist on YouTube and watched it over and over; I spent hours listening, dancing and painting to her music. Her name: Eliane Elias. I love jazz piano and love the way she plays it. So now, here is another unexplainable connection. The people I love most are going to be in Brazil.


Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Girl in the Blue Turban




As I was gessoing the paper for this painting my husband said, "What are you going to paint?"

"I haven't the slightest idea," I said.

"How can you get ready to paint and not know what you are going to do," he asked.

"Well, that's just the way it is," I told him.


There is something both frustrating and magical in those moments before the pencil sketch is created and the paint is mixed. For me there is no recipe -- no tried and true habits. Each work, as so many artists know, has a life of its own. And in the doing, each painting I complete could have been several paintings if I had stopped at certain junctures. I had an art professor tell me to "stop now or the painting will become something different." He was right.

I don't stop until I have exhausted every possibility and the work itself says you're done. I'm not sure it will always be this way. When I figure out how everything works maybe it will be different.

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Monday, April 6, 2009

Girl with Brown Eyes







Fred Astair and Eleanor Powell

Fred Astaire began his career in vaudeville. In the early 30s, he agreed to test for films. One studio executive's report on this screen test has been quoted many times over the years, but it is still just too good to pass up here: "Can't act. Slightly bald. Also dances."


Frank Sinatra comments on this performance at the beginning ... be sure to turn up your speakers.



Friday, April 3, 2009

Looking for Love





Spring is in the air and eyes are scanning the horizon for that one special person to love. When eyes meet eyes and there is a chemical attraction, the pupils enlarge. Here is my drawing of "The Look of Love" and Diana Krall's very cool YouTube video to give you permission to look for love.




Thursday, April 2, 2009

The Shadow of Your Smile



Memories don't belong to youth -- they aren't old enough to have many. It's only as the decades pass that we begin to treasure what we have chosen to put into our lives. Today I remembered that summer afternoon on the grass chatting with a boy just a year older than I. The sun was on his bare chest and he smelled so good. Most of the details have slipped out of reach, but what remains is that "shadow of his smile".

Here is George Shearing's piano solo played with the tenderness of maturity.