The photo I took of  that particular view was taken on a later day when it wasn’t so sunny. I needed this photo to show how it was when I painted on location.
The next year I noticed that orange bush died! Why? How strange! Another story for me to share of ‘how it was’ and look what happened!

Nothing else around this bush had died.  How strange to find that what I had painted and photographed had just died!  Why does this happen to me? 

I enjoy walking through this park observing all that takes place with the colors of nature and how the lighting can change through out the year and seasons.

 That painting was painted on location years ago and it was a challenge for me to duplicate all the different greens in the back ground landscape.

 I was lucky that a couple came out and had breakfast on the front porch while I was painting this scene. They were good models as they were reading their newspapers and having coffee. Of course, they didn’t even know I was painting them!  I bet by this time in history that house has been painted a different color and I heard that it isn’t even used as a bed and breakfast place anymore.

Across from that  bed and breakfast victorian is a tea house known as Mrs. Burton’s Tea House.  I was with a group known as the Wednesday Painters from Robert Landry’s class that went to paint at this location and I painted a view of the front door that particular morning and then that afternoon I did the back door view. It was a golden color house, but has now been painted green as I noticed one time when my friend and I had tea there. What a fun place it was.  Like some of my places I’ve painted or photographed, look what happened!  The color changed!

Well, as my stories go, ‘now you see it, now you don’t,’ this is one in that collection.  I found that  this tree was down and it no longer exists!

Ten years gone by and I finally got the painting going and then I wanted to deliver it to the home owner but no one lived there any more and I didn’t know their name or where they had gone to.
The house was neglected and abandoned and falling apart and people were taking pieces of it and breaking the windows, etc. I took a picture of it falling apart and then it was fenced off and a no trespassing sign put up. You could see right through the house!
This is another one of those incidents that I can say, looked what happened! I painted it, then it all changed. I never knew that would be the case with this particular place, but it did happen, and now it is a sorry site.  I named this oil painting “Hello Kitty.”  To this date, the place is still there even tho it is just a skeleton of a house, I pass by it every time I go to Summers Past Farm to paint. It is at the junction of Old Hwy 80 and Lake Jennings turn off of I-8.

I rushed to get to my studio and to paint what I had just seen, using the little notes I quickly wrote while driving.  Texting hadn’t been invented yet, but even if it were my handwriting was sufficient for the moment. I know, it’s hard to read what I wrote on this little piece of paper!

I waited till another year to hope to see that scene again, but never had the opportunity to be out on a February morning after a violent storm.  And then a few years later, the road had be changed and traffic directed in a different direction and that very view had all been changed, but the hills in the background remained the same.

I never knew I would someday be living on that very road with the hills in the distant background!  As to what happened to the china berry trees and some of the simple landscape, it all got moved for some new housing development to be built.  And now I live on Mission Gorge Rd. where my memory remains with a beautiful view of that very morning I sketched just some words to get this little 4″ x 8″ watercolor. Yes, as an artist I can sketch with fast hand writing!   The notes got thrown into the trash, all whadded up, and then I decided I better keep it just for the sake of having a reference on how some of my paintings come about even if it is a “quickie.”

The painting I did of this view is hanging at my solo show at the R.S.D. library this month, and it was a painting that was selected to be in a book of San Diego artists. It is a very special painting and it’s too bad you can’t  see this scene any more with all the buildings in the way whenever you drive along the 94. I had no idea this was going to happen! Another one for my book: Look What Happened!
The palette for this particular painting was of just earth tones which gives the painting the look that it has. I seldom use this kind of palette but I thought it was suitable for this scene which is now blocked.

 I just sold the painting of Tea for Kitty!  Since it is in someones home now, I’ll share it here for you to see.  Kitty was just painted last month so she hasn’t been around very long. She was created out of no where!  I had the flowers and the teapot all set in this painting and didn’t know what to do with all the empty space to the left of the vase, and so, here came Kitty! I kind of just made her up.  I’ll miss her.  I love cats, but am allergic to them.

I have the original watercolor image pictured here to show you what I came up with for her poem, The Christmas Rose. I was asked to portray a rose on a cross and so the idea of a sunrise setting was my creation. For most of the images in the poetry book I was given suggestions as to what to paint but I am thrilled with what I was inspired to create for this particular image.

The one thing I have learned about publishers and having copies done of my art work is that they don’t always print the colors right and may come up with their own color scheme.  If you ever see the book then you will know what I mean. But, at least I had to privilege to get my work published and I consider that an honor, especially having it with such a wonderful writer as Diana.

If you do not know of the Rose of Sharon, I would encourage you to ‘google’ those words and find out about this image of a rose on the cross. It is very interesting and the information on line is very good.

You can find out more about the book and other books by Diana Wallis Taylor at www.edgeofthewell.com

Here is a pic of that book that I am so fond of. I had forgotten why I was so intrigued by the book in the first place until I had the opportunity to read it later in life. What a coincidence to find a story that is similar to my own life.

Now, here’s the rest of the story… My husband was appointed to pastor a church in San Diego in year 2000.  I was browsing through some things in his church office, and here was this file box of all the former members of the church.  Lo and behold, there was the name Yetive Dean, the author of this book! It turns out, no one attending the church knew her because she had passed away, but how often do you come across such a name as Yetive?  That name really stood out and I screamed, “what a coincidence!”

She had a fur collar on her winter coat, a velvet hat with netting, black leather gloves on and a cute little purse, and high heels. I assumed she needed to buy some stockings that cold morning.

The earring she was wearing was of something I had never seen before and I made a sketch of it because it started on the top of her ear and wrapped around the back of the ear and at the bottom of the ear lobe it had dangling pieces. How charming! 

 I was so glad I had a sketch book and a pencil with me that morning to get a sketchy note of what I was observing. That was 1984, and many years later and I finally got around to doing a nice 8 x 10 inch watercolor of her and I titled it “Stockings Needed.” 

May Co. no longer exists at this mall, now it is Macy’s.  I have this kind of thing happen to me alot,  I painted it, look what happened!!!