It;s all been said before

All that I know I learned after I was thirty. Georges Clemenceau

.... and none of that sunk in until after I was 50. Unocchio

Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't. Pete Seeger

.....and for those of us who do not read the fine print ..... Unocchio

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again. Andre Gide

With that said, we might as will tip back a cool one ......

Oil on canvas board 9x12

A Mind Stretched by a new experience

Where we stand is not as important as the direction in which we are going.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
Mark Twain

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

An Asian vase makes a great centerpiece for a still life so here it is.... there was a lot more to this one than just the vase :-)

Oil on a panel 8x10

As long as you can start

As long as you can start, you are all right. The juice will come. -Ernest Hemingway

The difference between good and great is just a little effort.-Duffy Daugherty

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. -Henry C. Link

So today we prepared for a presentation ... then painted a picture. Both were adventurous ....

Makes me think of the Springtime when the apple blossoms are on the trees. We may not get any this year since the warm winter hung in there so long.

Oil on canvas  9x12

Create an exciting circle

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must first set yourself on fire. - -Fred Shero

It is known that happy people think more happy thoughts than unhappy people. If we think happy thoughts... we create happy perceptions... we create a beautiful aura of light around ourselves... which leads us to happy events. And so we create an exciting circle (where we become even happier).

Still working with a limited pallet ..... we always like a friend cow 8-)

Oil on canvas board 6x8

If you don't get everything you want

The difference between good and great is just a little effort. -Duffy Daugherty

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright, quoted in Reader's Digest, June 1995

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book


If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want. ~Oscar Wilde

Continuing studies on composition and values    ....  a quick study of a friend of mine :-)

Oil on canvas board 6x8

Purple and yellow

If you're not failing now and again, it's a sign you're playing it safe. -Woody Allen

Today's class was on color and values .... lights and darks .... warms and cools..... we were given 2 colors to paint a picture .. + white. The colors were yellow and purple.
So here is what happened......
This is a knife painting.

Oil on canvas panel 6x8

The saddest thing I can imagine

The most imaginative people are the most credulous, for them everything is possible.  - Alexander Chase

 The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.  - Charlie Chaplin

Yea... fat chance here :-)

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night.  - Edgar Allan Poe
 
Thankfully for that.

Still painting flowers over here .... dreaming of Spring already .... heading for Arizona tomorrow....

Oil on canvas board  8x10

Plain, Honest and Upright

Turn your stumbling blocks into stepping stones. -Anonymous

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers. - Orison Swett Marden

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.- George S. Patton

"Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men and animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock."
~ Henry Ward Beecher

You can't get too much of a good thing

Oil on canvas board 8x10

A Great Beginning

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water. - Carl Reiner

Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while. - Kin Hubbard


Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes - every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man. - Orison Swett Marden

I'm very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own.  - Norman MacCaig

So what better way to introduce the new year than wander through High Sierras, ponder reflections in mirror lakes, study ice crystals on frozen water's edge, breathe the fresh mountain air and stroll through the marsh-land trails watching the ducks feed on the stream bottoms?
I could not think of anything better so that's what happened. Follow along.........

I don't know if you can read these signs but the advise that Fallen Leaf Lake in California is several miles long and about 400 ft deep. Today, the sky was bright blue and the sun added warm rays.... one of the mildest New Year's days the locals can remember in a long time

Fallen Leaf Lake is a little over 6000' elevation and a couple miles off the highway down a long narrow road. As you approach today you will not see a ripple on the water... it is smooth as glass.... notice the reflections in the next several pictures .... awesome... have you ever seen anything like it? It takes your breath away.

Climbing a little higher is Glens Falls with a frosting of glistening ice. The locals say that this is a rare occassion because usually one can not see this without plowing thru deep snow. It is a gorgeous sight !

Proceeding even higher there is Lilly Lake nestled high in the hills amount the pines and firs.

It would have been nice to continue up the wilderness trail but there was this very intimidating sign ... stopped me in my tracks.....

Meanwhile on over at Lilly Lake other visitors found it to be frozxen over with a thick layer of ice .... again, something a person does not usually get to experience without trudging through deep snow this time of year. Did they enjoy this good day?

Upper part of Lilly Lake... yup, frozen deep!

Lots of tall grasses at the edge of the lake... inlets frozen...... under the ice out there in the middle is running water which fed the falls we saw earlier then ran on down into Fallen Leaf Lake.

It was truely a great day.... hope yours was too.