Still Life

There they were, two pair of shoes hanging on the clothesline -- they needed a little pair and a trip to a neighborhood garage sale provided a very nice childs pair of tennis shoes. The rest was pure fun.

This may be a messy way to burn candles, but I like it.

The color of the vegetables and fruit seem to become deeper when behind glass. Some canners are meticulous in the way they arrange the products in the jar, like an artist arranging a painting.

The colorful orange pods of the Chinese Lantern plant were a delight for the first three years they were in our garden. Then, I became aware they were a voracious predator, sneaking underground only to emerge twelve feet away in the middle of some other plantings. They thrived too well in that location and it was time to call a halt to their wanderings. It wasn't easy. We dug, sifting and lifting the most minute portion of root. Those roots that we missed sprouted up a couple of weeks later to say, "Hello again". It has now been two years since we eradicated this remarkable plant. So far this year, only one sprout has grown to greet me and my answer was a very unfriendly yank. But say, aren't those pods lovely?

In the 1930's rural farmers frequently made butter at home in 5-gallon churns, packed the butter in 2,3 or 5 pound crock jars that were furnished by the grocery store. They traded the butter for groceries. My parents used this method. I obtained this small 2 or 3 pound crock from a grocery store that was going out of business in the 1950's in Columbia, South Dakota. It holds my pencils always ready.

These are the boots one wears so the mud from the flower beds gets left in the garage. Easy on and easy off

We grow them in the summer garden and dry them in the autumn. In the summer they give the garden a good shot of color and their soft mauve, rose and sage colors cheer the inside rooms on winter days.

They're back!! I thought this generation of gals had beaten the system. During the past decade I've noticed how working women cast aside high heeled shoes for comfortable lower-heeled dress shoes. Those who didn't choose the latter, decked their feet in chunky looking shoes. One might call them "sturdy", but by all means, call them "comfortable".
I thought the women of today wouldn't get dragged back into those glamorous looking shoes that are killers but lately I've noticed those long pointy-toed shoes are back —shoes that remind me of those weapon-boots worn by Bertha Kleg in the James Bond movies. Her's had knives that sprung from the toe.

The high fashion shoes today don't need Mrs. Kleg's knives. Today's dressy shoes have toes are so long and pointed a woman could go out and plant a few dozen tulip bulbs by just jabbing the toe of her shoe into the dirt. A small trowel, that's what they are.

I know of what I speak. I have three pair of those shovel-toed shoes that I bought 52 years ago, one gold, one black lace and one striped. All with killer toes. When I saw the latest fashion ads, I went to the closet, pulled out the hat box containing these old shoes and set one pair alongside the hat box for a painting. Oh yes, along with those vicious looking shoes we wore sheath slim dresses, and rope pearls. God, we were glamorous. God, our feet hurt the next day.

I had a wonderful time developing this impasto oil painting with my palette knife

The brush containers sit on the table doing their job but I rarely look at them. The sun caught them at the right time one morning and I looked -- and painted.

I purchased a box of leftover pearl cotton balls as I was passing through an antique shop near Oaks, North Dakota about 25 years ago. I was so enthusiastic about the good buy I overbought and have yet to use all the lovely colored floss. So here is a part of it.

There must be close to sixty balls of Pearl cotton embroidery floss that have been stored in a shoe box for over 25 years.years. They may not even sell it in balls like this anymore. The colors are lovely.

This particular Raggedy Ann doll is now 44 years old. She spends most of the year in a box filled with other dolls her same age. Every Christmas all of the dolls come out of the box for a display on top of the piano.

When the holidays were over this year, I held Raggedy Ann out of storage for a few weeks so I could paint her one more time. The elastic in the waistline of her pantaloons is badly worn and the pants hardly stay up, but she endured and we both enjoyed a few hours together. She is now back in the box with her friends.

Shoes were pulled off and left on the grass so I went to work. Such large shoes they were.

Some wonderful wooden spools with colorful thread. It was surprising to see so many different sizes of wooden spools with different types of thread.

Cups make a wobbly stack and it took a lot of twisting of handles to make this grouping behave themselves while I painted.

Lesson One in the art of stacking teapots is to know when the addition of the final pot is going to cause the pyramid to topple. After learning this hard lesson a lightweight aluminum teapot was selected for the top position. Size 10 x 20 inches