Blue Moon

Tonight, Dear Cherubs, is a very special full moon.  It's the blue moon! This is the moon of magic and wishes. Made even more special due to the fact it is the last one until 2015.

Blue moons occur every two to three years due to the "left over days" form the solar calender. (leap year anyone?)

Traditions all around the world  view this moon as special (except Christians who call it the betrayers moon since it came "too early" for Lent. Really, guys? Really?)

The moon of course isn't going to be blue (though that would be awesome) Since it is atmospheric pollution like dust that would cause the change, i.e. like in 1883 when Krakatoa erupted all moons where literally blue for two years.

Now, the blue moon that should be really fun is in 2028. It falls on New Years Eve and is a full lunar eclipse, imagine the craziness!!

It's seen as the moon of wishes. It is said that what you wish for on the blue moon is sure to come true. So, Dear Cherubs, take stock of your life and use that wish wisely.

Ode to a Still Life

So I had been working on this still life. Still lives get a bad rap in the world for being rather generic, and I could go into the history of Dutch genre painting and the role still lives played therein. That will have to wait for another day.

Still lives are a great tool for an artist to use. They are still, free models the artist can use to flex their muscles. A still life can be explored for a long time and still not exhaust the possibilities of composition and light. Setting up a still life isn't taken lightly. You have to put in  a variety of elements in order to create a sustainable interest. Should it be monotone or a riot of colors? How about textures? the possibilities are truly endless.

This sketch was done over another in progress abstract  I was bored with. I may not do anything like that again as the strong blues interrupted the coloring of the mask and cloth, but it can be good to let go of control from time to time.

Have you heard of Befana?

I just found out about this tale today, and thought it was lovely. Too long have witches had a bad image!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Befana