The Face of Pure Enjoyment

THERE IS A PURE JOY THAT ART BRINGS TO THE SOUL THAT IS HARD TO PUT INTO WORDS.  ONE CAN SEE IT REFLECTED IN THE FACE LIKE A MIRROR TO THE SOUL.

       BEAUTY                           APPRECIATION               
               AMAZEMENT                 JOY   

On the Leicester Open Studio tour Ann listens and watches Rachel Clearfield tell her story of how she came to painting  and the mountains of the Blue Ridge.  You can see the pure joy and love of art in Ann's face.

Transition

Transition between two Worlds

Today I near the end of my stay in Asheville for now, hopefully to be back in October or November. As I sit by the fire with Da Vinci snuggled up I think of all the art I didn't get done this trip, but I know I took time to fill the bank of experiences and images that will come out later when I do art. I think it is so important for artist to realize sometimes they need to not do anything, to be quite, to reflect. For me as an artist there is a deep reservoir that I must stay in touch with and replenish. I can only do that in quite times by myself. I know families and partners my not always understand us, but it is essential to our creative being. I have not relaxed as much as I would have liked, there was much to do with the house and studio that dealt with repairs after a rental period. But my drives to Potato Branch road, looking at the family farms(that remind me so of England and Wales), visiting with my mountain friends who fed me well, and experience the culture and art of this area of the world has been renewing to my creative self. When I head back to the Florida palms, the warmer more humid weather, I will leave behind the blue mountains with turning falls leaves. I will leave behind the chill of fall coming and the pumpkin patches and scarecrow decorations. I will leave behind a culture that is so different from my Tampa/Cuban/Italian/Greek community I love equally as well. It is like having two lovers both with wonderful exciting possibilities. I am fortunate I can go between both.

A Virtual Day in Ashville/Blue Ridge Mountains

Lets start with breakfast! One of my favorites is Early Girl Eatery, they specialize in healthy, wholesome, and local foods. Asheville restaurants as a whole are dedicated to local foods and local farms. What a difference in taste that makes when foods are not picked green, gassed for color, and shipped across the country.

Asheville is so thick with artists that if you throw a stone, you are bound to hit one! The walls of Early Girls has doodles done on the brown paper from the tables. Most restaurant doodles are very basic, these look like an art gallery!

Here is our pick for breakfast, potato garlicky cakes with fresh home grown tomato gravy, and a whole wheat biscuit(for you Brits it is not sweet!), soft scrambled eggs, and coffee. http://earlygirleatery.com/(also check side website favorites for a clickable version of address)
Now that we have had our late breakfast and lunch together we are off to see the city!