Then it was five days of decompressing at my wonderful sister Kitty and brother in law Jim’s house at the beach.  As creative as some of you think I am as an artist, my dear sister is as accomplished and talented in the kitchen.   Check out this work of art she spun out one morning – made it look as easy as making toast.    She is seriously masterful and cooks all day like I paint.   Of course we didn’t want to take her away

My Sister Kitty's Apple Joulis

from her normal activities and we were treated to such brilliant offerings as pork roast wrapped in pancetta with a roasted butternut squash and arugula salad and a version of potatoes anna with bay leaf that knocked our socks off.   Daily walks to the beach were invigorating and life affirming.   But there is nothing like laughing with my sister.    She is an epic treasure.

One of the highlights of our stay was getting a historic walking tour of Coronado led by my brother in law Jim’s mother Lois.   Lois is a tireless worker in local groups and has been leading tours for years.    Included in the tour was a map of Navy Aviator homes with corresponding signs distinguishing them.   Most were from World War II though there are some more contemporary aviators who had lived on or still do live on Coronado island.    My husband, a World War II history buff was particularly thrilled to see where Admiral William Halsey had once lived.

Lois On our Walking Tour

This trip was capped off with an evening of early bird over indulgence, pedestrian style.   We all went out with our twenty somethings niece, her fiance, my nephew,   on what I guess was a type of “bar crawl.”   As fun as it was,  I managed to make it back to the beach house by 9:30, with a headache.   That’s how I fly these days!

Me and Kitty

Onward up the coast to Solana Beach to drop off some paintings at Susan Street Fine Art’s new digs.  A lovely, light filled space in an enclave of creative businesses.   Susan and I worked together in decades past and reacquainted last year on a project for UCSD Thornton Hospital.   Wish I had installation shots of that!

A stop off for lunch with my dad in Orange County.   He’s going strong at 94 and it was a precious visit. xo

Breezed through L.A. and then it was onto my old friend, author Claudia Hoag McGarry’s house in Santa Barbara.    This was such a treat.   Claudia and I got our first apartment together at age 18 and have known each other for 40 years.    She’s the same.   Smart, funny, cute and married to the sweetest man. Paul McGarry.  They live at the beach – apparently everyone on this trip does!  They both are college teachers and there house is filled with papers being graded in overstuffed furniture in a cozy vaulted living room that looks out on a So Cal version of a Eucalyptus forest.    We took a short walk through the reserve and found ourselves looking over the ocean at this last peek of the  sunset.

   This visit was years in the making and now we can’t wait to do it again.     Claudia’s second novel was recently released.   Her first one, “My Scorpio Soul” really put her on the map and is a great thriller of a read,  along with witty and relatable references for any boomer.    Her second, “My Aries Secrets” continues the series – this one I still have to read!      The next morning our timeline was shortened and we had to be in San Luis Obispo that evening.    Missed seeing my sister and her family at her incredible spanish bungalow in Santa Barbara after going by two times!!!   We promise to return soon.    My sister Sue’s creative gift is in renovating interiors.   Can’t wait to see what she has been up to inside this gem. I want to do a painting of that house!   And by the way, Santa Barbara rocks.

Who wouldn't love this?

Paul and Claudia McGarry

On to Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo and I feel like I have entered a Disneylandesque (due to its newness and shininess) beach town.   I found out later that Avila Beach had been subject to some sort of oil spill under the town and was subject to a massive cleanup and reengineering of the entire town.   It rose from the ashes so to speak and is now a thriving little beach town.   I can say after staying one night (midweek Autumn rates were quite low) this is a nice town to take a family and the resort is perfect for same.   With vineyards nearby and the absolute beautiful beaches, its really quite nice and lovely to see businesses doing well.

The next morning we met with Maridel Salisbury at Salisbury Vineyards.   Maridel has been an art dealer like her sister, Susan Street, for decades.   The vineyard has a tasting room and gallery in a renovated schoolhouse in Avila Valley.    They did a phenomenal job restoring the building and keeping the integrity of the space intact.   I was elated to start working with Maridel and to leave her with one of my paintings, “Fall Rain”  to formally introduce the central coast to my work.

From there we meandered home, the empty nesters.    This is something I am still getting used to.   I’m loving it but after two months of not seeing my daughter I missed her terribly.   She came home last weekend and I got my kid fix.    And she used all the gas in the car, left a big mess and went back to school.   I love her so.

Back to the studio………I’ve got some paintings in me that are just waiting to get out!   Stay tuned….

"Summer House" Pastel Victoria Ryan

After a week living out of a suitcase at The Four Points Sheraton and preceded by weeks and months of annual preparation for my biggest event of the year The Sausalito Art Festival, we are finally, and happily, home.    I’m sitting in my office, Barack Obama is addressing Congress in the background…..hmmm, I’m not big on politicians right now, even the ones I voted for.   I’m incredulous to all of the rhetoric but let’s see how he does.   I need to be inspired right now.

This time of year is historically the end and beginning of the work season  for me.   I just sent my daughter off to college and my dear husband and I are now empty nesters.   Its a strange feeling but one I am embracing for the sake of my psyche and my art.  I look forward to working with abandon in my studio late at night, taking the occasional trip to gather inspiration without having to concern myself with school schedules and the fear of my child driving at night.   No car for this freshman and the dorm is right on campus.   Somewhere there is an R.A. who is going to get a nice Christmas card from me.  I wonder if they make sure the kids eat their vegetables?

Back to current events….. Sausalito was a bittersweet blast.  Its always fun and crowded and I’m by now a show veteran along with my other peers in Row 600 on the tennis courts.  This year’s “gala” was a tad ill conceived but our spirits were not deterred come opening morning.

My work looked great and I placed quite a few originals in the hands of new collectors and added to the collections of more.    I love this show more than any other and its always sad when its over.   So many friends and laughs and good times.    But its so nice to be home.

In a little over two weeks we take off again for San Diego.    A little show in LaJolla that has the benefit of having Joseph Lillis on board.   He is the mastermind that turned the Sausalito Art Festival into a blockbuster event for artists and patrons and is hoping to do something similar in other venues.    Till then I’ll be back in the studio in earnest.   I have paintings to paint including a big hospital commission.    Hope to come up for air soon.

Bay Area Friends:   if you would like a private showing of anything you saw at the Sausalito Art Festival I will be in the Bay Area at the end of the month.  Please let me know and I’ll come by and show you work in your home/office!

Barack is still talking.   Lots of clapping.   Seems to be going quite well.   I’m actually inspired!  Awesome.

"Blue on Blue" 14"x28" Pastel

Its that time of year again…… Open Studios.   What does that mean?   Among other things it means I have to clean my cluttered studio.     The hardest part is deciding when to stop painting and start cleaning.    I often wonder about other artists’ habits in this regard.   Some people by virtue of their temperment and personality are very organized and tidy.   I do keep a pretty clean home overall and things are for the most part in their place but somehow I do tend to just want to get down to business when I get into my work space while I try to keep it simple – I can see that I could use some downsizing in the area of useless stored materials.     I have promised myself to “get on that” and “deal with the pile” that is taking over valuable real estate that could otherwise be used for secondary painting space.   It could be time to hire an organizer because it just seems to not happen and now my guests will have to gingerly navigate through the junk.   Its really not that bad.   I’d just rather paint up to the last minute!

Open Studios is always lovely because the studio is tidied and presented and paintings are available for exhibition and sale throughout my home and studio space.   I have an “Off the Wall” sale where collectors can negotiate on purchase pastels unframed right off the studio wall complete with a discounted coupon for framing at Eureka Art and Frame.    There is usually a nice flow of visitors throughout the weekend and my family chips in and hosts our guests and gives tours  and offers refreshments.    Living in an arts friendly area is rewarding and always amazes me.      I’ve gotten to know some pretty cool folks over the years in my own home!

If you are in or near Eureka this weekend please do come by Open Studios.    I will be open from 11-5 Saturday and Sunday at 2286 Ralphs Ct., Eureka.   Guidebooks will be available in the paper and around town.    Posted above is a recent local landscape from a day in Loleta.   Winters in Humboldt have their own beauty.   As I was painting, the song “Blue on Blue” kept going through my mind, thus the title.   I guess its an old song but if you’re a boomer it’ll come to you.

"Wine Country Afternoon"

Opening on April 7 at Robert Allen Fine Art in Sausalito, California,  is “Northern California Landscapes” consisting of paintings from yours truly and a handful of other regional greats.   Robert Allen has created a beautiful setting in which to showcase his artists and it is definitely worth the visit.

Continuing at Studio 7 Fine Arts in Pleasanton, a series of recent landscapes can be found.   If you are in the Tri Valley Area, this gallery is a must see having one of the largest exhibition spaces in the Bay Area.

Be sure to check the Upcoming Events Section for where to find me in the months to come.

Pink Rhododendran

Its North Coast Open Studio Tour time.   Artists from all over Humboldt County open their studios during this annual event held the first few weekends of June.    My studio will be open the first weekend, June 5 &6 from 11 am to 5pm.  If you are in the area and would like to see newly released original pastels, as well as oils, prints and  the ability to purchase work straight from the studio wall please come by.   Refreshments served.   For further information visit    North Coast Open Studios .

Hope to see you here!

"Green Roofs" Pastel

When I was a kid one of my favorite artists was Andrew Wyeth.   I had a bookon his art and I remember studying it and admiring  the beautiful starkness of mood he was able to create with his gorgeous watercolors and egg tempera paintings, two media that I myself delved into “back in the day.”   Later it was Edward Hopper who I meditated on with abandon.   My dear friend from art school, Terry Jane and I flew to San Francisco from L.A. to see his retrospective at SF’s MOMA in 1981.   We still laugh because we had to carry our luggage through the museum.   Apparently we would have done anything to see a once in a lifetime event like that.   Hopper’s landscapes propelled the painter within me.    The common thread between the two is the sense of stillness, of solitude these artists so beautifully achieve in their depictions of scenes from their  surroundings and their travels.

In the series of work I have been developing over the past several years involving rural architecture, I feel a sense of going back to my roots as a painter to the initial inspirations that guided what my painting has always been about at its core.  Though my earliest work was decidedly more suburban in subject matter – as was my actual surroundings,  the thread of my early obsession with painting masters Wyeth and Hopper was always there.

In my work, and with pastel specifically there is a tendency for it to create a dreamlike atmospheric feeling in the finished work.    Since I continue to play with the premise of a heightened sense of reality or a dreamlike version of same, it continues to be my favorite medium of choice.   My latest completed pastel landscape painting in the rural architecture series is “Green Roofs.”  I was very attracted to this composition for its sense of disquieting calm amidst a blaze of color, pattern and light.

And the journey continues…..

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Famed  Humboldt County  author Terry McLaughlin is featuring my pastels on her  new website .   Terry is a celebrated romance novelist.  Visit her here!<http://www.terrymclaughlin.com.

"Harmony" 20x27" Pastel

 March 27-April 26….New Pastels at Art Brokers Inc., 2660 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA

Opening Reception:  March 27 from 6-9 PM.    Please come celebrate with me.   This latest body of work is a decisively more intimate view of the landscape with emphasis on painterly images of streams and other waterways, a commonly explored theme in my work.   New prints will also be unveiled at this show.