Lighthouse in Chania city, Crete, Greece – 6″ x 11″ Watercolor & Ink

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”
–Author Unknown

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Lighthouse in Chania city, Crete, Greece – 6″ x 11″ Watercolor & Ink

Oty hosted the WDE (weekend drawing event)  over at WetCanvas and she lives in Greece.  This was painted from her photo reference.   In the photo, there was a beautiful horse and buggy, too.  I may have to find time to paint it later.

When I lived in Huntington Beach, CA, I worked for a company called Omynee Industries.  My boss, Tony Kardamakis, was from Crete.  He eventually went back to Crete and offered me the job of running Omynee Industries.  I had just moved to Oklahoma when I got this offer and passed it up, but I have always been grateful for the opportunity.

Author Unknown

This quote came from my wonderful little book by Ruth Fishel, Wrinkles Don’t Hurt, Daily Meditations on the Joy of Aging Mindfully.  I love this book!!!

Split Rock Lighthouse – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Ink

“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”
– Robin Williams

Yeah!!

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Split Rock Lighthouse – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Ink

The reference  photo was from Surob at WetCanvas.  It’s the Split Rock Lighthouse on the shores of Lake Superior in Minnesota.   I know it’s hard to believe…. but I had so much fun painting this!    It really was kinda this color, too. 

About Robin Williams

In 2005, Robin Williams, the Oscar-winning American actor known for his wild improvisations and amazing mimicry, was voted by fellow comedians and comedy insiders as one of the top 50 comedy acts ever. He was born in 1951 in Chicago, and he first garnered attention as a stand-up comic in San Francisco. A guest role as the alien Mork on the TV series Happy Days was so popular it led to his own show, Mork and Mindy. He has starred in many successful films, including Mrs. Doubtfire and Good Will Hunting. He has three children.

Lighthouse – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor

“Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
–Emily Dickinson

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Lighthouse – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor

This little postcard was from another reference from jlloren at WetCanvas.  This is what Joel had to say about the photo… “The northern most province of the Philippines is Batanes. Here is their light house courtesy of my friend, Irah.”

I almost didn’t use a sharpie on this one, but ended up doing part of it. 

Emily Dickinson

While Dickinson was extremely prolific as a poet and regularly enclosed poems in letters to friends, she was not publicly recognized during her lifetime. The first volume of her work was published posthumously in 1890 and the last in 1955. She died in Amherst in 1886.

Upon her death, Dickinson’s family discovered 40 handbound volumes of nearly 1800 of her poems, or “fascicles” as they are sometimes called. These booklets were made by folding and sewing five or six sheets of stationery paper and copying what seem to be final versions of poems in an order that many critics believe to be more than chronological. The handwritten poems show a variety of dash-like marks of various sizes and directions (some are even vertical). The poems were initially unbound and published according to the aesthetics of her many early editors, removing her unusual and varied dashes and replacing them with traditional punctuation. The current standard version replaces her dashes with a standard “n-dash,” which is a closer typographical approximation of her writing. Furthermore, the original order of the works was not restored until 1981, when Ralph W. Franklin used the physical evidence of the paper itself to restore her order, relying on smudge marks, needle punctures and other clues to reassemble the packets. Since then, many critics have argued for thematic unity in these small collections, believing the ordering of the poems to be more than chronological or convenient. The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson (Belknap Press, 1981) remains the only volume that keeps the order intact.
Source:  www.poets.org

Cat at Lighthouse

“While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes the right important.”
–Walter Lippman



Cat at Lighthouse – 2.5″ x 3.5″ Watercolor ATC

This little guy is just a reminder that tomorrow is the Halloween Blog Challenge.  Post your Halloween painting to your blog and link back here, so we can go see your work.  Last year was so fun.  I hope you’ll come by and see what everyone (hopefully) does.

Walter Lippmann (23 September 1889 – 14 December 1974) was an American intellectual, writer, reporter, and political commentator famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War. Lippmann was twice awarded (1958 and 1962) a Pulitzer Prize for his syndicated newspaper column, “Today and Tomorrow.”

Walter Lippmann was born on 23 September 1889, in New York City, to Jacob and Daisy Baum Lippmann; his upper-middle class German-Jewish family took annual holidays in Europe. At age 17, he entered Harvard University where he studied under George Santayana, William James, and Graham Wallas, concentrating upon philosophy and languages (he spoke German and French), and earned his degree in three years, graduating as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society.

More…

Masters Study – Edward Hopper, Lighthouse at Two Lights 1929

“You get what you reward.  Be clear about what you want to get and systematically reward it.”
–Bob Nelson



Masters Study – Edward Hopper, Lighthouse at Two Lights 1929
2.5″ x 3.5″ watercolor ATC

I really became a big Edward Hopper fan during this exchange.  Here is a link to the original Hopper painting.  In looking back at them now, mine seems much lighter than his, but that’s okay.  It was so fun to do.  (Imagine that…. me having fun! )

I got today’s quote from my little book by Gary Ryan Blair, “Goals – The Ten Rules for Achieving Success“.  I cannot be sure which Bob Nelson he was quoting, so I don’t have an author’s bio for you today.  I found Bob Nelson quotes from a motivational speaker,  a comedian,  and a host of others.

Hip Cat Visits Lighthouse

“Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.”
– Samuel Butler

 

Hip Cat Visits Lighthouse
2.5″ x 3.5″ Watercolor ATC

Ha!  You were expecting a painting of a sailboat? 


I haven’t painted any cats for a while and this one just had the smug look that cried out for sunglasses.  The cat in the reference photo didn’t look smug, but my paintbrush interprets things it’s own way, sometimes.
I say … go with the flow when that happens.  No Rules.  It’s great brain food.  

About Samuel Butler

British author Samuel Butler is best known as the author of The Way of All Flesh, a semiautobiographical novel V. S. Pritchett called one of the time bombs of literature because of its incendiary critique of Victorian society and because Butler delayed publication until after his death. He was born in 1835 near Bingham. Rather than enter the clergy as many of his family members had, he became a sheep farmer in New Zealand for four years. He first gained fame with the satirical novel Erewhon. He died in 1902.

Block Island Lighthouse

“Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.”
– James Russell Lowell

 

Block Island Lighthouse
4″ x 6″ Watercolor Postcard

This is not my favorite, but I thought I’d share.  I got some new Daniel Smith watercolors and tried to paint this, using only those colors.  Well, it was just too pale, so I came back in with some more colors and just overworked it.  It looks a little wobbity-jobbity, too! 


The colors I bought are yummy, though.  Iridescent Electric Blue, Duochrome Emerald, Duochrome Adobe and Iridescent Garnet.    I also picked up a Black Tourmaline Genuine.    I love Daniel Smith watercolors!

About James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell, the sometimes romantic, often ironic American poet, was also a diplomat, serving as ambassador to Spain and, later, Britain. He was born in 1819 in Massachusetts and became known as a New England poet. His satire The Bigelow Papers was his best-known work. While a professor at Harvard, he wrote critical studies of Dante, Shakespeare, and Chaucer, among others, and also served as the founding editor of the influential magazine The Atlantic Monthly. He died in 1891.

Sally's Lighthouse

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”
– Sir Winston Churchill

 

Sally’s Lighthouse
6″ x 6″ Acrylic on Little Box
My friend Sally has a room in her house decorated with a lighthouse theme.  I painted this little box for her birthday.

About Sir Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Churchill was an extraordinary British prime minister; he laid the groundwork for welfare in England, helped set the boundaries in the Middle East, became a symbol of the resistance against the Nazis in Europe, and was a central force in the Allied victory in World War II. He was born in 1874 near Oxford. He was known for his courage, his stubbornness, and his powerful personality. He was also an accomplished painter and writer. He died in 1965.