Christmas Day

I can't stay away. I'm addicted, so here is a post for today.

We had a great day today. Much to eat, of course. Our tradition is New Mexican food. We have posole, tamales, empanadas, beans, tortillas, biscochitos and more. Jennie and I make everything on Christmas Eve. The family was here today and some friends. We opened our presents today, a switch for us, we usually do it on Christmas Eve.

What goodies! For the artist in me I got a new studio easel from Gene. It came with paint, canvas and more. He is still putting it together, well he stopped for the night and will finish soon.

From Jennie I got some new Rembrandt pastels. It is a set called General Selection with some beautiful primary colors, it looks like my oil painting palette colors. They look so good, you hate to use them, but can't wait to use them either. Also a new book called "Portraits from Life in 29 steps" by John Howard Sanden with Elizabeth Sanden. I will report here on how that reads. It looks great. I may end up liking to do portraits, who knows? We tried this summer in Magdalena, with respect to Jennie, I did not publish the try I made with her. She sat for me, even in public! The "stoppers by" said, "What a beautiful model! Oh, and the painting is a start." Ahemm.

From Joanna, "The Ultimate Book of Sketching" by John Hamilton, John Marsh, Robert Norrington and Sharon Finmark. On the back it says, "How to exploit the unique versatility of the pencil, How to see and then sketch everyday objects, How to compose a good sketch, How to master perspective, How to render light, shade, depth and distance and With simple sketches and finished drawings throughout" Sounds pretty good, too. With my renewed interest in sketching, this should be very helpful. Also "a painting a day - volume three by Karin Jurick. Her paintings of people looking at paintings are especially fascinating to me. Take a look and let me know what you think. Also a CD of "Live at the Bugle Boy, Volume 1" The is a music house in La Grange, Texas, about 30 miles from here where we saw Bluehouse. You can get a preview on the Bugle Boy page.

Larry satisfied my reading side. A book of three complete novels by Tony Hillerman, "The Joe Leaphorn Mysteries", including The Blessing Way, Dance Hall of the Dead and Listening Woman. I have read these in the past, and so enjoy them. Reading them again will be a great pleasure. They are set in New Mexico about the Navajo Police. Make me homesick for New Mexico. He also gave me music to paint by. "Dolly Parton", the Acoustic Collection 1999-2002. Four CD's. Very nice to add to the old iTunes. He also brought his photos from his web page to see in person. Wow, again!

I had a visit here from Susan Borgas. I really like a painting she shared as a work in progress on wetcanvas.com, "A Window with a View" See it on her page, scroll down to check it out. She has lots of info and fun stuff on her pages. Free photos for painting references on her Snapshots page.

We talked with Gene's mom in Magdalena and our son David and family in Kentucky. So, all in all, what a great day! It was just super. I was up until 3 a.m. wrapping presents, so guess I had better try to get to bed by midnight. Are all artists night owls? Something to think about.

Merry Christmas again.