Happy Easter

Happy Easter!!

8" x 10"

watercolor

Wishing you and yours every happiness and blessing on this very special Easter day.

Spring is here. Grass and leaves are bright green. Bluebonnets and other spring flowers are beginning to show and, soon, some areas will be blanketed with blue, pink, red, and yellow.

In my little painting, above, I have shown a narrow barn with Mesquite trees in the background. My father used to love to work out in the family's various pastures out in the country. He loved to ride his tractor and mow or to do heavy work that others said he should not do. He liked to show his strength. One pasture that he rented just north of town had a lot of Mesquite trees. But there were just too many and that meant that there wasn't much grass for the cattle to feed on. The Mesquite trees thrived, no matter what. He would cut them down and, before you knew it, they were back with more than he had to begin with. They multiplied instead of dying out. You can see a little tractor with Daddy riding among the Mesquite trees in my picture. There are also a couple of bales of hay because he had to feed the cows since there wasn't that much grass in this pasture.

We thought that the trees were pretty with their bright colors and lacey leaves, until we found out that they had thorns. I remember in a painting workshop that I took with my mother, she asked the instructor, Harry Ahysen, how to paint leaves on trees like Mesquite and Willow trees. They are certainly different from the roundness that we work with in things like Oak trees.

Also in my painting, there are two children (a boy and a girl) , sitting near the barn, playing among the Bluebonnets. Maybe they are waiting to hunt Easter Eggs hidden in the flowers.

Poochie, our dog when I was growing up, is sitting, watching a butterfly. Poochie was an excellent Easter Egg hunter! She often beat us to the eggs, and ate them! And, if we couldn't find some and the "Easter Bunny" couldn't remember where he hid them all, Poochie would find them. We came home with less eggs than Mama had decorated.

We didn't actually go to the country to hunt eggs. This was actually a spring picture. But, it sort of fits with spring and Easter and memories of childhood.

"The Easter Bunny" (Daddy) usually hid eggs for us in the park just a half block away, before Sunday School and Church at Sneed Memorial Methodist Church. Some years, they were hidden in the yard or at the school, which was on the other side of us. If the weather was bad, we got to hunt eggs, over and over, in the house. We didn't have candy eggs, big chocolate bunnies, or baskets stuffed with goodies, unless it was a coloring book or paper doll book and some crayons. We had a colored straw basket with some green Easter Grass in it. And we added the eggs that Mama had colored for us with egg dye and vinegar.

Some years, when we were small, we had a big Easter Egg hunt on the lawn of the Methodist Church, or on the school grounds, and some years, in the park. Those were fun when there were lots of kids. And stressful for little ones, and their older siblings, who had trouble finding the eggs. Of course, we had to try to make sure that Poochie didn't come. She would have found all the eggs! And Poochie was one loyal dog who would find us, especially my little sister, where ever she went.

At noon, after church, everyone gathered with their families for a big Easter dinner, with the good china, crystal and silver. Mama would usually bake the ham as her's came out the best. Sometimes we ate at Grandma Conitz's house until she couldn't do the cooking anymore. Some years, we had our dinner at Pappy's house, or Toot's (two of my great-aunts). Or some years we had the dinner at our small house.

The menu was about the same for each family dinner, except we had ham at Easter and turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had red roast and red gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatos with marshmallows on top, ambrosia, creamed corn, English peas, stuffed celery sticks and carrot sticks, spiced peaches, deviled eggs, rolls and bread with coffee, water, or iced tea to drink. The salad was always either a Jello salad with fruit, or a pear or peach half or pineapple ring on a lettuce leaf with a dollop of mayonnaise. For dessert, there was pie-apple, chocolate, mince meat and, sometimes, Grandma made Boston Cream Pie. Fresh whipped cream topped the pie. We also had cake and Bakeless Cake, which had to have whipped cream on top, too.

After dinner, grownups did the dishes, sat around the table and visited, while we begged to go to the picture show or sat under the table and decorated underneath with our crayons. Sometimes we would go outside and sit around. Grownups would take a short nap while we read the funny papers and waited anxiously for our Sunday afternoon ride through the Brazos Bottom, to A&M, or to Marlin and Waco.

Some years, we had a community sunrise service in the bandstand in the park. I remember one year, at least, that the CHS band played for the service. I thought that was nice, though it was so early! I always thought that the park was underutilized for community events. To see a picture of the bandstand, you can scroll down to my Spring Break post and see a picture of the bandstand in the snow, a few years back. It really was a lovely place.

Of course, fashions played a big part in our Easter observance. Socks with lace and matching panties and a handkerchief, a new purse to twirl, a pastel colored dress, with a matching hat, white shoes and gloves, and a pastel colored coat and sweater, in case of an Easter Snap, were shopped for, months in advance. Ladies hats, matching dress, coat, sweater, white gloves and light colored shoes, a matching purse were also planned for months. My mother sewed, but, our good dresses had to come from Cox's or Goldstein Miguel in Marlin or Waco, or Jack and Jill in Marlin. We looked through catalogues and newspaper for ideas, but we spent hours and hours in the stores, trying on and finding just the right outfit.

For men, there were spring suits, but they often just brought out one they already had, took it to the tailor shop if it needed updating, had it cleaned, bought a new shirt, tie, socks, and shoes, had their hat shaped or bought a new one, and got a new handkerchief for their pocket.

I don't remember that there was anyone who didn't go to church on Easter, unless they were sick and unable to go.

And, I can't remember most of those pretty outfits that I wore!

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Sketch Crawl:Saturday March 29

For Details, see yesterday's post or

click on http://www.sketchcrawl.com

If you are in this area, and are interested, let me know.

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Brazos Valley Art League Juried Show

Pick up entries March 28th

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Vision-April Moonrise

April Moonrise
image size 8.5" x 11.5"
paper size 9" x 12"
watercolors

It was April. A night when the moon rose, full and bright, above the tree line in our back yard. The trees had filled out with deep green leaves, concealing the next house. Shadows fell across the small storage building in the back yard. The sky had a pink glow as lights from A&M and the city reflected above the trees.

It had been several months since I had been diagnosed with Macular Degeneration in my left eye and told that I had cataracts in both eyes. I had been given one injection in my eye before treatment was suspended due to my lack of insurance and income to pay for it. I had been told there was help, then hopes were dashed when I learned that there really is no help for me. That I will lose my vision.

I won't go totally blind, I've read, but I will lose my center vision. And that is important to most of the things that I do such as writing, reading, drawing, painting-even cooking, or finding my way home. I had already failed the eye exam in order to renew my license, so there is no more driving. Drawing had become a challenge due to difficulty at connecting lines, or seeing some patterns. Reflections on paper can be a problem. The way I work is changing, but that is not such a major thing. It will be a problem if I can't focus on something. Color is a bit difficult, at times, as it is hard to distinguish between some colors, such as black and dark blue, olive green and beige. I thought that was just a normal part of aging, but it is also one of the things that point to AMD. I feel like I can adjust to some of those things. But, I had also burned my hand on the oven, when I couldn't tell how far my hand was from the coils and dropped a bowl of cereal when I couldn't find the edge of the kitchen counter. Hanging up clothes on a rod in the closet took several tries, as well. If I want to see a program on television, I have to move my chair no more than 2 feet away. Usually, I sit on the couch across the room, and just put up with the distortion and abstract shapes and weird colors-and draw. I just glance up, and then I have to ask someone who that is, or what the print says, or what time the clock says on the cable box. I can't help with navigation while in a car because I can't read the signs until we are almost upon them.

I just hoped that it wouldn't get any worse than it already has been. I might be able to cope with that, and just try to enjoy, and make art, from the strange things I was seeing and experiencing.

I had feared that injection in my eye so much. Then I feared not being able to get them and pay for them.

"Come look out the back window!" My youngest grandson called on that April evening, as he often does. We have to look at interesting clouds, unusual colors, a pretty moon, or even an intersting airplane as it lands or takes off from the airport.

We pulled back the curtains and watched the full moon above white, fluffy clouds over our back yard. I closed my eyes and blinked, but the image didn't clear up for me. I had been told that would make things clear, with the cataract problem. It didn't work. There seemed to be three overlapping moons in the sky. The security light in the neighbor's yard looked like a triangle-something from "Star Trek"-as it peeked through a tree. It was quite a sight, but I knew that was not really how things looked. It was hard to know whether to be excited at the unusual sight, or to be upset and frustrated, even depressed, because I couldn't see things realistically. And even more so because this could be treated, but that option is not available to me.

So, I sketched it, with the thought of turning it into a painting. I used a #314 Draughting Pencil on this one-the drawing pencil that handles best for me.

April Moonrise

8.5" x 11" pencil

In the watercolor, I used Winsor Newton watercolors on 140 # watercolor paper.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about Macular Degeneration, or AMD (Age Related Macular Degeneration), I have added some links on my sidebar under the Eye Sites section. I hope that my experiences and my art work will help someone else.

Be sure to visit the Authors and Artists, and Interesting Sites sections, as well. There is also a section on Storks, with links to more information and pictures. The storks are migrating to Africa, now, but, there are webcams that you can enjoy when they return next year. You can look back in some of my posts and find some drawings that I did about storks.

Thank your for reading and sharing. Let me know if you find something of interest to you. I welcome inquiries and comments. I do appreciate your support.