"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas "

. . . . and to sound a lot like Christmas, too! This is the time of year when music is playing everywhere and when you're a musician, so are YOU! Concerts, programs, caroling, church programs--everyone wants your services. My husband, Roy, is a French horn player and he finished his last Christmas job on Sunday evening. Not that he's complaining, but he did a lot of playing in the last 2 weeks. I am an oboist and I don't play many places like he does but the fact that we are both musicians brings me to the subject of today's post.

Perhaps the fact that we are is why so many of my paintings have musical "themes" or subjects.

Even some of the abstracts feel like there are musical elements and I think it's because music and musical instruments are something I can paint about without having to see them (0r a photograph of them) right in front of me to paint them. I can paint them from my memory, using my imagination. Not that they are all that accurate sometimes, but you will know what I'm painting about.

So when I'm at a workshop, for example, and at a loss for a moment about what to paint, I often turn to something musical. I guess it's because that's my comfort zone. Today's painting example is called "Gimme That Old Time Rock 'N Roll" and it is a large acrylic--2' by 4'--with a gallery wrap edge, no separate frame. It's done in acrylic with paper collaged on, some pen work, a little sparkle, and some gesso from a squeeze bottle for some of the linework. I have the original available and one print on canvas that is the same size as the original. Prices upon request.