Happy Chinese New Year!

Did you know that this is the Year of the Pig? Today is Chinese New Year--I hope we will celebrate it by having Chinese food for dinner.

Much has happened since I last wrote. On February 11, I was honored to receive a Madison Art Society Award for my painting entitled "Lord's Cove, Tidal Marsh," which was chosen as the members' favorite in the Associate Artist category. On exhibit right now in their show at the Scranton Memorial Library in Madison, Connecticut, it is a 9 x 12 oil on linen. Perhaps someone will like it enough to buy it.

Anyway, I have been very remiss in writing, partly because I have been away on holiday. Roger and I were married on Valentine's Day, 1980. It doesn't seem possible that 27 years have flown by. Well, we watched the Northeaster's snow & sleet from the comfort of the Inn at Woodstock Hill here in Connecticut. Built in 1816, this inn boasts four fireplaces in each of the public rooms so we were toasty and cozy during our anniversary getaway. While there, I enjoyed painting a watercolor a day of the view from three different windows: a gnarled tree outside our bedroom during the height of the storm, the fields and hillside from a private dining room next morning, and a birch tree standing sentinel outside the main parlor the day before we left. I haven't played with my watercolors for too long. It was challenging but fun.

Joan Cole's love of color is apparent in her paintings.

Cold, bright February days such as this remind me of my childhood. As a young girl, I loved experimenting with color. I'd scavenge empty containers from my mom's jar drawer, fill them with water, line up the jars on the piano bench, and drop in bits of colored construction paper. The dyes I coaxed from the paper transfused the water with magical hues. I spent hours mixing these tinctures in more empty containers--a little of this, a tad more of that. Finally, standing on a kitchen chair at the white porcelain sink, I'd watch my potions blend into a river of brown, heading for the drain. Whenever I paint, whether in oils or in watercolors, I become that child again, playing with color.

Joan Cole painting in her studio

Super Bowl Sunday Success

Hooray! I just discovered why my very first blog on 2/1/07 wasn't showing: I hadn't posted it! I learn something new every day.

Well, I have been working on a painting of the ocean viewed through the dunes. Yesterday, I took a break from it to begin a new painting of a small flower basket hanging in one of our church windows at a friend's wedding. I'll try to post a picture of myself with these two paintings.

Meanwhile, I'm off for a quick walk around the block to soak up some of this glorious sunshine, which belies the crisp 18 degrees outside.

Confusion?

My efforts today at setting up my blog have been enlightening and confusing. I had posted a comment to my blog when I first began working on it 2 hours ago. Now I can't see where that one is.

Also, Roger has tried to comment from his computer but hasn't been able to figure out how.

Joan Cole Fine Arts

Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit is what we say in my family on the first day of each month. Then we make a wish, knowing it will surely come true. My wish today on the first of February is that I can really get my blog up and running so that I can share my art work with all of you.