SUN COINS

WILD FLOWER GARDEN!


Diamond dew sparkling morning sunlight:  Radiant!


Mauve Cosmos, atop feathered fronds, bob in the breeze.


Cone Flowers, Painted Daisies, Shastas....


Thrust upward, thirsting for sun.


Bachelor's Buttons/Larkspur glow electric blue.


Candy pink, purple, shades of dark and light, wine colored all,


I see Monet's Garden!  Wild Chicory blue frosted stalks,


Ivy leafed vines "Morning Glorious" flowers reflect sky.


Gold Coins shower space:  Sun Brilliant.


Coreopsis grew in Aunt Lela's Garden.


And she would pick the colors,


Teaching me to paint


With such precision,


Gold Flowers pinked edges:  frozen in time


On Aunt Lela's hand painted linen.


*FEEL THE JOY:  MAGIC GARDEN!




Aunt Lela was a petite vivacious magical woman of many talents.  She taught art, music, and singing.  I loved to sit and listen to her play the black massive baby grand piano and sing to me.  I looked upward to see the dark wood German crossbeams on the cream colored ceiling.  She and her husband lived within walking distance of the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  We all walked there one summer evening to experience Saturn and its rings up close and personal through the giant telescope!  Aunt Lela knew the director.

Aunt Lela's oil paintings of flowers showed delicacy and intricate detail.   She grew a wild flower garden in her back yard fashioned into a steep Pittsburgh hillside where bees buzzed on the flowers and birds bathed in the stone bird bath, hand carved out of the Pennsylvania rock.  I was a little child when Aunt Lela and I picked flowers together.  Enthusiasm and energy shone from her sparkling blue green eyes.  We painted the flower models on the sun porch on canvases using luminous oil paint mixed with linseed oil and tiny brushes.  We cleaned the brushes with turpentine and pointed them back to shape.

Lela's hand painted sets of sage colored fine linen napkins graced our lace tablecloth.  She pulled the thread fringes herself!  Aunt Lela made a very detailed brick by brick painting of the George Wythe House in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.  She loved capturing creative moments with painted space and time.

*Who is an influential person in your life?  Remembrance Writing met as an informal free group in a local public library for people wishing to express themselves and put notes on paper, audio, digital, blogs, or scrapbooks for sharing with family, friends and (if desired) the world and beyond. Our leader gave us a smorgasbord of topics.  We could also choose our own themes.  We learned how to express and release emotions. Public reading of our own work (this was tough for me at first), and the joy of hearing others' adventures ignited individual creativity exponentially.


www.skyandtelescope.com  This week in the Night Sky, interactive star chart and more
Allegheny Observatory Pittsburgh, PA on Wiki

The Artist's Way, The Writing Life by Julia Cameron, experience the joy of your artistic expression.

The Yoga of Drawing, Uniting Body, Mind, and Spirit in the Art of Drawing by Jeanne Carbonetti. 

dahlis.roy@gmail.com  free PDF E-Book Silver Butterfly Create A Vision.
www.scs-matters.com/Dahlis-Roy.shtml  biography and paintings, originals and prints


Small Flowers watercolor painting by Kay Wilson, Art Workshop
Monarch Butterfly, photo by Dahlis Roy

RAINWALK

In the cool of the evening Paul and I went for a walk to a nearby pond to see if blue heron cranes were visible in the mist.

The air was thick yet breezy.   A comfortable temperature prevailed.  I noticed the lush blooming gardens and thought of my poem, Flowers in the Rain.  The sky was golden towards the sunset west, spiked with palest blue and a touch of dove gray.  Then I noted an innocent small charcoal colored cloud overhead and smiled, no rain was predicted...and then it began to sprinkle!  And then it began to pour!

We kept walking and laughing in the rain!  It rained harder!  I took my bandanna scarf from around my neck and placed it over my head like a monk's hood rain shield, tying it securely under my chin.  My glasses stayed raindrop free.  By now we were dripping wet!

Before the walk, I had put on a light weight long sleeved dark denim blue shirt.  It was a perfect rain shield!  We got wetter and wetter and felt like children playing!  Turning towards home, the red rays of the setting sun painted the rain slick sidewalks, road, and driveways a rainwashed pink.  Some of the sky was pink and some was a gray lavender!  Totally soaked, I wondered how may other walkers and viewers noticed the light show?

We had a spontaneous adventure totally unplanned!



Related Posts:  The Blank Page and Flowers in the Rain (Aug 2011)

http://imaginehealing.info/  Joel P. Bowman, Ph. D. and Rev. Debra Basham, CHTP, NLP. RMT, HTt  use guided imagery to enhance intuition and healing.

dahlis.roy@gmail.com  Inquire original paintings, custom Giclee prints or request free illustrated PDF E-book, Silver Butterfly Create A Vision


Rainwalk, photo by Dahlis

THE BLANK PAGE!

Bolt of Blue
One of my daughters sent me a surprise package!  I lifted out a beautiful writing journal, spiral bound to lay flat on a table.  On the cover was a blue butterfly painting in iridescent blues, ochres, umbers, with golden accents!  I placed my hands on the journal, then opened the blank lined pages, just waiting for me to write something! 

I froze!  It's been years since I actually wrote any longhand notes that I didn't shred as soon as my story or poem went digital.  It is easier for me to type than write!  I had forgotten how to write at all!  Worse yet, I didn't want to mar the pristine journal with my usual unreadable abbreviated scribblings and crossings out!

"Mom, you could start with just words, one word, or word associations, anything that pops into your head or imagination.  That will free you from writing a finished work in the usual sense!"

I remembered my poem called Flowers in the Rain and smiled!  Yes!  This is exactly it.  To begin the flow of painted words, I will enter my flower impression on the first blank page for inspiration!  If drawings appear, so be it!


The Painted Journey
*I taught Art Workshop a few years ago.  Students came.  I encouraged them to paint what they want to experience.  It's beyond "paint the vase."  Draw out the inner child to paint from within (heart light) rather than painting from without (tracing copying).  When students paint their favorite subjects at their own pace, and the instructor guides rather than teaching prepared lessons, miracles occur!  A few students sat, staring at the blank paper.  I sensed their hesitancy.  You can do it!  The first step is line or color on paper, canvas or computer!

Your journey with pencil or paint begins with one stroke!


Like a blue string tied to infinity, intent is part of your recipe for creative awakening.  Pick up a pencil, pen, crayons, or paints and free associate your own journey dance with word-color and light-speed!



Out of the Blue, oil sketch by Dahlis Roy.  How did the colored vertical line on the right appear?  What about the smudges of gold?  Let it happen!

Related post:  Flowers in the Rain poem (August 2011)

The Artist's Way, The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart, Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance by Julia Cameron, spark your right brain creative intuition

The Naked Archaeologist, Simcha Jacobovici, award winning investigative journalist, brings archeology to life.  Episodes on History International Channel.  See You Tube Naked Archaeologist for True Blue and Return of the Hilazon.  Sacred blue, Tekhelet, returns to the Earth.

dahlis.roy@gmail.com  Request free illustrated E-Book, Silver Butterfly, Create A Vision.  Inquiries original paintings and custom prints available.

http://imaginehealing.info/ with Joel P. Bowman, Ph.D, and Rev. Debra Basham, CHTP, NLP, HTt, and RMT using guided imagery and intuition to enhance healing.

*Purple Flowers watercolor by Kay Wilson created in Art Workshop

FLOWERS IN THE RAIN

FLOWERS IN THE RAIN


Sprinkle


Downpour


Harp


Larkspur


Clouds


Shades


Monet's Palette


Life Colors


Everyday Light!






Abundant flowers bloomed all around at a graduation party setting for an art student. The festive air was sprinkled with rain drops, then a downpour of silver rain and green appeared.  We scurried under the tent.  I looked out over the fields of flowers, heard the harpist play, and pictured Monet's Garden.  Set in painted words, impressions of the day and light.



The Artist's Way, The Vein of Gold: A Journey to your Creative Heart, Finding Water, The Art of Perseverance, The Writing Life, Julia Cameron enhances your creative adventure.

William Butler Yates Poetry for Young People, edited by Jonathan Allison and illustrated by Glenn Harrington, for all ages, a visual treat

dahlis.roy@gmail.com  Visionary Artist, Author, and Tai Chi Instructor request free PDF illustrated E-book, Silver Butterfly Create A Vision.

www.scs-matters.com/Dahlis-Roy.shtml  biography and paintings


Chessie Studies Flowers, photo by Paul

OUT OF BOX EXPERIENCE

We have a large gray Tomcat.  He loves his sweater lined box.  One morning as Tom got out of his box, yawning and stretching, Rob noticed, "Tom's having an out of box experience!"

Recently a friend and I unpacked a box of my painted dog treasures, stashed away for eight years!  It was like a ceremony.  We even dressed up fancy!  We are having an out of box experience along with the art work!

Journey of the Collie
I reflected back many years to wonder how I became connected to the dogs I love so well....

Who were the Sunnybank Collies?
Albert Payson Terhune was a journalist, writer and mystic.  He penned stories, sometimes fictionalized but based on fact, about the Collies he owned and loved.  He and his wife lived on an estate named Sunnybank in Pompton Lakes N.J.  Terhune penned a tale, Lad A Dog, and through his writing the Collie breed commanded attention along with the Lassie movies and later the Lassie TV show.  Terhune's Collie stories touched hearts in animal lovers and ignited many a collie fan, including me.  "Superdog" events were painted with Terhune's words into vivid mental movies.... 

I stood in the toy store near my home and stared at the colorful dust jackets of beautiful paintings of Collies on Terhune's books.  I was in grade school teaching myself how to paint animals.  How would I paint such dogs?  I bought the books, one at a time, and studied the words and paintings, (mostly the paintings and pen and ink illustrations) and began my own painted journey with the Collie, imagined and real.

Of course I wanted a gold and white Collie of my own!  How would I acquire one?

We saw a classified in our local newspaper for purebred Collie puppies.  My Mom and I went to a farm in Pennsylvania, Coolspring, and there was a mom Collie and two puppies nestled in the straw.  One was a golden Laddie, "mine!"  I named him for Terhune's first Collie, Lad.

We brought Lad home and began to feel the energy of the young three month old pup.  I had books about dog training and began to train my Collie.  He was very easy to train!  His registered named was Loch Haven's Hi Land Laddie celebrating his Scottish ancestry.  He had a beautiful face and lovely full white collar.  His soft dark eyes shown into mine.    

The growing Lad smiled and waved his plumy tail, leading the way, as we hiked through the woods behind our house and up the beaten trail.  We'd climb up the rocky bluff.  In the Pennsylvania spring, we saw Trailing Arbutus and the snowy three leaved Trillium flowers in bloom.  Summer was hazy, hot, and dusty.  Dry grass snaked underfoot at each step.  Winter was a blue and silver wooded wonderland of crunchy wet snow.  Lad's coat grew huge and thick, I brushed the snow from him as he shook it off.  I loved to watch him run through the snow at top speed.  He paused to scoop up snow with his nose then roll and bark with sheer joy! 

Gray Dawn
A. P. Terhune wrote a book, Gray Dawn, about his blue merle (gray) Collie.  I was determined my next Collie would be a blue merle.  The marbled coat is an ancient color.  I remembered a poem fragment:

"Shades of gray from smoke to pearl,
Mottled with black is called blue merle."

Twenty years later we received our blue merle puppy.  We named him Rare Edition's Cloudy Sky.  Sky sat on my husband's shoe while I was working with painting some of the Collies at the kennel.  Naturally we went back and bought the silver baby.  Sky was our "best dog ever" event!  He herded our young children away from the road and barked a protective warning.  Sky knew the boundaries of our unfenced property.  When we walked Sky down the street,  pedestrians often crossed to the other side, not knowing what  Sky was. Perhaps a large silver wolf was near!  We chuckled....

*By this time my journey path with the Collie had taken many exciting turns.

Pilgrimage to Sunnybank
While we were still living in the Washington D. C. area, I had the chance to attend Sunnybank Festival on the grounds where the Terhune family lived.  The Victorian house had been torn down, but the lake was still there, vibrant and shimmering.  Graves of the famous Collies are set in sacred stones scattered on paths the joyous dogs romped so freely.

Some Collie paintings and I made the pilgrimage to Sunnybank!  When I awoke that early morning, a foggy mist glowed at 5 AM.  I had muscle cramps in my back, common for me in those years.  How could I even go on the trip?  Two Collie loving friends and I piled into the car with the painted dogs and off we went.  The New Jersey Turnpike soon loomed ahead...The outdoor art show under the trees was refreshing.  People came from miles around and some brought their Collie pets and show dogs!

The journey to Sunnybank was a Healing Path:  my back relaxed during the day, and I was pain free upon my return home!  A joy filled day out with Collie lovers was so needed.  Thinking out of the box, I like to think the invisible Collies helped!

Until One Has Loved An Animal, Part Of The Soul Remains Unawakened.

Photos:  Lad, my first Collie, by Robert G. Diess, M.D.  Thanks Dad!

Sky, our silver Collie puppy, photo by Dahlis Roy

Art Work by Dahlis:  Stormy, tri-color Collie puppy pastel painting owned by Janet Hitt (played the Japanese fighter pilot in the movie Tora Tora Tora.

Champion Wickmere Silver Bullet, pen and ink portrait owned by Mrs. G. H. (Bobbee) Roos displayed with permission.

Related Posts:  Escape Artists (Feb 2011 see our Tomcat), What Kind of Animal Are You? (Jan 2011), and Winter Wolf (Nov 2010)

*Dahlis' Journey with the Collie:  sold first pastel portrait of Champion Linbairin's Future Model to Mr. and Mrs. E. D. Poole at age 15;  illustrations for Collie Cues Magazine;  illustrated award winning book Collie Concept by Mrs. G. H. Roos,  Four Covers for Collie Review Magazine. Limited edition print for Mason-Dixon Collie Club and Collie Club of America, sets of limited edition prints of 20 famous Collie champions of the past.  Numerous animal portraits and custom paintings in private collections.

http://imaginehealing.info/  Joel P. Bowman, Ph.D., and Rev. Debra Basham, CHTP, NLP, HTt, and RMT  See Tom on home page, Imagine Healing Animals.

Albert Payson Terhune, author, journalist, mystic:  Collie Stories, Lad A Dog, Gray Dawn, Bruce and others.

dahlis.roy@gmail.com  Collie Club of America lithograph prints available, original artwork and custom Giclee prints.  Request free PDF illustrated E-Book, Silver Butterfly Create A Vision, the prequel to Out of the Blue.