FIORE AZZURO

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Fiore Azzuro
© 2010 SA Barone
Acrylic on Canvas - Framed
30x30













Close Ups

LITTLE PAINTINGS ARE SO MUCH FUN!

I just posted two of the paintings I finished for the 20/20 show. They will be hung in the 20th Street Gallery in Sacramento. Sometimes, doing a lot of small paintings can be a real pain but when done they all look so great together.

One is called the Koi Pond. I used lots of paint and some orange paper that reminded me koi fish. The other painting is called The (mini) Matrix.

Have a wonderful day!

WOW! BUT IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME!

It has been such a long time since I blogged, just before the family reunion to be exact. The reunion went off without a hitch. We had so much fun it should be against the law. I can't say enough nice things about all my cousins. They are an incredible bunch of people and so are their kids.

I even sold some of my art work which was awesome. I love selling my work to people I know. That way I'm assured that each one of my paintings, which are like my children, have a very good home and will always be well taken care of.

Actually I'm painting like crazy now for three new shows. One show is 20 small paintings, and the other show I have to paint some kind food. I'm doing beets on a piano, - so fun! A friend painted eggplants sunning themselves on the beach. It's going to be a very fun show.

RELATIVES AND ART SHOWS

It's a busy time for me right now. I have a family reunion coming up which I am totally looking forward to, I love all the relatives that are coming, such great people. We always have so much fun when we all get together.
Kids, adults, dogs, everyone gets along. We are going to BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs and whatever else we can find to throw on the BBQ. It's going to be a non-stop two day party. I can hardly wait.
Then when the reunion is over and all the smoke clears, I have to get busy painting again for two more shows. I was accepted into a show in Sacramento then I have another show coming up in November. I also have a commission painting to begin soon. So, like I said I'll be busy painting for the next few months.
I got an anonymous comment on my blog this morning. I think I know who it was from, not quite sure but if I had to guess I would say it was Linda. A very nice person who came down and visited with me when I was painting a few weeks ago. I gave her a board and some special papers so she could make a collage of her own, and I'll bet it's beautiful, I think she is a very talented woman. So Linda, if you left the nice comment on my blog, I thank you and I hope to see you again when I'm down in the Delta's.
Have a wonderful day!

THE DECK, OH WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE DECK!

The launch pad, bandstand, monstrosity, dog playground, deck is getting a new face lift. There is someone who actually knows what he is doing and is going to fix it for me. I'm so happy. It will get done before my big family reunion and it will look nice. I have a couple of new tables with umbrellas and chairs to put on the deck, there is a fire pit just behind it, and there will be some nice potted plants sitting around so it will look like it belongs in the yard. As of now it looks like something that fell out of the sky and landed smack dab in the middle of my pool area. Right now it's a good conversation piece, people can stand there and discuss this, whatever it is, for hours. It's really funny when people come over and go out in the yard they actually stop and discuss all the possiblilities of the deck. Hmmmmm, maybe I should rethink getting it fixed, it's such a fun conversation piece. People say things like, "Hey have you seen the deck over at Shirley's house?" or they might ask, "What the heck is that?" or one of my favorites, " Did you know that the posts on your deck are all crooked and leaning?"
Well whatever I do I know at least that my puppies love the deck, no matter what it looks like, they like to lay on it and chew up the kids' toys that they leave out, or wrestle on it, they like to sleep on it and they love sitting on it overlooking the property at night, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. There are those who love this deck no matter what it looks like.
Have a wonderful day!

I AM NOT TELLING A LIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday the dog trainer arrived. I thought oh good, these pups are really going to get their comeuppance now. Well, when he arrived he looked the pups over while I was telling him how bad they are. I said, "They never come when I call them. I have to scream at them to get them to sit down." Blah, blah, blah.
The trainer said, "Go ahead and call them over to you." I said, "Ha, they won't come, I'll have to chase them down." He said, "go on call them." So I did. "Come Leo, come Bella." Of course, I'm smiling because I just know they won't come. Well, those bad little dogs rushed right up to me, sat down and stared at me with their big doe eyes as if to say, "Here we are mother, do you want something."
The dog trainer looked at me as if I was a little nuts and said. "What good dogs you have."
"No," I yelled, "Believe me, they never do this, they never come when I call them, I have to chase them down, they are bad bad puppies."
All the while, my two little darlings are staring at me with those big doe eyes, still as statues.
So now I'm being trained on how to train my dogs. I will get them for this. Really I will.
Have a wonderful day!

TODAY IS THE DAY!

Today the dog trainer comes! Two little puppies jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head, one little puppy jumping on the bed, she fell off and....no more puppies jumping on the bed. No more dog hairs in my sheets and no more muddy prints on my bed spread.
Boy is this dog trainer going to have his hands full. My little puppies are so cute and wonderful and they make everybody happy, they love people and they love all other animals, but...they are bad! Bad little puppies! Actually they are not so little, they are pretty big, as a matter of fact when Leo stretches out he's about the length of a small Shetland pony. Little Bella is much smaller and daintier, however, she certainly gives Leo what for. She actually kicks his butt at least once a day. As I said, both puppies love people and love other animals, especially other dogs. They play with all the neighborhood dogs. They come to our yard and we throw the ball for them all and they have so much fun. Our puppies really are good but they need to have some manners and learn some simple commands like, come, stop chewing everything in sight, no jumping on the bed, or people, no licking faces, out of the flower beds, etc. This guy is very good, I have used him in the past and he did a great job with my other dog, Charlie. Well, better start preparing the pups for company.
Have a wonderful day!

I'M BACK AND THERE IS LOTS TO DO

I'm back from my mini vacation and I had a nice time. Lots of rest and relaxation, not much to do, had dinner a couple of times at a Jamaican restaurant, I had the sweet chili fish one night and curry goat the other night. Excellent, excellent food! I also did some painting and finished a couple of new paintings, one of them I really liked. the other not so much. That happens every so often. I'll paint something and think it will be wonderful and when I'm done I'm not too in love with it. It's one of those paintings that others really like but you don't, know what I mean. I guess I'll put it in the gallery and hope someone comes along and buys it so I don't have to look at it anymore. I had a painting a long time ago that I felt that way about, I didn't like it so much after I got through painting it, so I put it in a show and it turned out to be a winner, and I put it in a few other shows and it won a few other ribbons, it turned out to be a good show piece, go figure!
Well I'm off to the home helper store, Loew's. Have a wonderful day!

AWWW, A LITTLE R & R ON THE DELTA'S

I'll be leaving in a little while for down South and a little time floating around the Delta's. Some much needed rest and relaxation, a little business and some visiting with family and friends. I'll be doing some painting, I have a couple of paintings I want to finish for shows and maybe a couple just for me. Anyway the weather will be good, not too hot, nice evening breezes coming in from the Deltas and a nice little house all to myself. I can eat what I want and when I want. Hmm, lets see, the first night I'll have an appetizer of crackers with squirt on cheese, then I'll have a banana, peanut butter and pickle sandwich with salty vinegar chips for dinner. Then for dessert I'll eat Fish Food ice cream right out of the carton. Yeah!!!!!!!!! This might be a lot of fun planning my menu for the week. Well, anyway you all be good and I'll be back next week.
Have a wonderful day!

ART, ART, AND MORE ART

Today I am going to Weaverville. A wonderful little town in the mountains. It is quite a tourist town and many art collectors come through there. There are so many good artists in that one little area it's amazing.
This month I am one of three featured artist in the Main Street Gallery. I am really looking forward to this show it is going to be a good one. For this show I sent up a pretty good variety of work. I have a monoprint, watercolor, acrylics and oils, mixed media and collage. I really love doing mixed media pieces and collage. Actually I love doing it all. There are so many other techniques I want to learn, like encaustic. That has to do with wax. Heating the wax and adding color and putting things in the wax, or something like that. I understand it is very messy and can be dangerous if the wax gets too hot. Gee, maybe I won't do that one, I could burn down my studio for pete sake. Well, better get ready to go to Weaverville.
Have a wonderful day.

IS IT A DECK YET?

There were several relatives here this week. They came to help build me a deck for an outdoor kitchen. There were nephews, son-in-laws, grandsons, friends. I thought how lucky am I. All these guys in the family coming to help their ole auntie and grandma out. There were a lot of guys here but the funny thing is none of them knew how to build a deck. What I ended up with is a very expensive, high off the ground, something that looks like a cross between a launch pad and a bandstand. It is going to be very interesting when I try to set things up on it. Oh well, I can always build walls that are half screen, put a top on it and call it a sleeping porch. At least the kids will have a lot of fun camping out and playing on it. It is also very close to the pool so I can always put a board from the bottom step of the deck,bandstand, launch pad, to the pool for the kids to jump in the water.
They tried and they all meant well. Lucky me.
Have a wonderful day!

WHAT'S COOKIN'?

We are having a new show at our gallery in November titled What's Cookin'? It is all about food. The artist's can paint still life's, or they can get really creative and paint all kinds of crazy foods. I'm going to paint Beets sitting on a piano and call it, Off Beet. I think it will be funny to have an enormous beet sitting on a piano. My other painting I think will be a pond with Lily Pads, however, instead of flowers on the lily pads I'm going to paint fruit on the lily pads. Maybe I'll have some melting bananas coming out of a goblet sitting on a lily pad. Then maybe I'll paint a bunch of grapes hanging around another lily pad. Then maybe I'll paint a giant tomato sitting on a tiny little lily pad. The ideas are endless, and this is going to be one fun show. Oh, maybe I'll have a cupcake with a fish on top on one of the lily pads. Well, I better get busy and start getting all these ideas on paper. Oh by the way, the fish tacos we had the other night were incredible, absolutely delicious. Let me know if you want the recipe.
Have a wonderful day!

THERE IS NOTHING BETTER!

I have friends who live in Alaska. They go fishing. They sent me 200 lbs of fresh caught Halibut! My whole family thought they were in heaven. We have always loved our friends from Alaska, now we love them a little more, if that's possible. There is nothing better, than eating fresh caught fish, especially Halibut.
Tonight we are having fish tacos with lots of fresh veggies in the tortillas. Most of the time I grill it on our outside BBQ and baste it with a little lemon butter and fresh basil, right from the garden. It is absolutely delicious. I did share a package with my sister and a package with a very close friend, but if anyone else asks me if I have any fresh Halibut, I will take the 5th. I will be guarding the rest of my stash with my life. I actually moved a small freezer into the room where the dogs sleep. No one will get into that room without me knowing it. The dogs will let me know if someone is trying to sneak into my freezer. They have been told to bite first and ask questions
later. Fresh Halibut is like gold, it cost almost as much if you try to buy Halibut in the stores. Well, I better go, I have lots of fish to guard. Hope I haven't made you too hungry.
Have a wonderful day!

SATURDAY AT THE GALLERY

Today I will spend half a day at our gallery. I just know we will not have any visitors because the weather is much too hot for people to drive around gallery hopping. We do an Art Hop every second Saturday and we have a lot of visitors, however, we serve food, drink and sometimes wine. Today there is only tap water and no goodies. It will be a good day for me to catch up on my reading. I started a new book but haven't been able to pick it up but today I will.
Stay cool and have a wonderful day!

PINE CONES, PINE CONES, $.25 FOR PINE CONES!

Today my little grandson Dominic wants to earn some money so he is going to collect all the pine cones all over my property. I have six acres. He wants to be paid by the pine cone. So we have decided on 25 cents for each pine cone he collects. There are hundreds of them so he has a good chance of making some money here. He can get approximately 25 pine cones in his wagon. The pine cones are everywhere for the picking so it's not like he has to climb or scale trees or cliffs to get these pine cones, my property is pretty flat for the most part. The way I see it, one wagon full could be as much as $6.25 If this little kid fills his wagon 15 times, like he says he can, that will be $93.75 he will earn today. I think I better make a trip to the bank so I can have the cash on hand for him when he is done. I think he'll do it, he is a very enterprising young boy. We have also agreed on a spot in the far back of the property to dump the pine cones. It is so much better to mow when we don't have to walk around picking up pine cones first.
Have a wonderful day!

30 30 ARTSHOW

Today is a good day to be in the house. It is very hot outside and everything is sort of frying. So, as long as I have to be indoors, I thought I would do a little catching up on my blog. I posted a picture of what our 30/30 show was like, I mentioned it in one of my other blogs a while back, and it was a big success. We had tons of people and lots of positive feedback not to mention several sales. Everyone's work was spectacular. I posted a couple of mine so you could see what they look like up close. They are just little tiny tiles, actually hard boards but they do frame up very nicely. I'll post one that I had framed and you'll be able to see what I mean. I posted a bunch on my Etsy site too. I always love these kinds of shows, they are really a challenge but lots of fun.
Have a wonderful day!

30/30 Show - Study of Pollock

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Today is going to be another hot day. The family is coming over for a BBQ, swimming, the usual stuff. The kids will swim all day and tonight we will all go and watch the fireworks. Some of the kids will fall asleep because they are so exhausted from the sun and swimming all day and then they will wake up on the way home and cry because they missed seeing the fireworks. Life is tough. Remember, put your animals away before setting off any fireworks. Fireworks really scare animals, they panic and run. Some have gotten hurt and even killed by running into traffic or through fences, etc. I plan on painting today for awhile before everyone starts coming over. I plan to get at least two paintings started before I have to begin entertaining and chasing kids.
Happy 4th everyone and have a wonderful day.

HOT! HOT! HOT!

All I can say is, its been hot, very hot these days, well over a 100 degrees. I'm willing to bet that yesterday it was at least 105. I love the hot weather, however, scorching hot is not very pleasant. It's hard to work outside, it's hard to walk outside, it's just plain too hot to do anything. Even the pool water is like a bathtub. When it's that hot it's a good idea to stay indoors and read a good book. Hot hot weather is like cold and stormy weather in the sense that it is best to stay indoors. Read with the children, do puzzles, clean out those drawers that you always meant to clean out, get rid of all the stuff in your closets that no one ever wears. I never could figure out why they say to clean your house in the Spring. Everyone is doing Spring cleaning. The Spring is when everyone should be outside having fun, walking, jogging, working in the yard, the heck with the house, save all those extra cleaning chores for the hot hot weather and the stormy cold weather.
Have a wonderful day!

DIRT DIRT AND MORE DIRT

We are putting in an outdoor kitchen and the back lawn is being dug up as I type. I didn't realize how much dirt has to be removed. There is dirt everywhere. The only ones that love all this dirt are the little boys and the puppies. They are in heaven with all this dirt around. One of the little boys loves helping the workers dig the dirt, he isn't afraid of a little hard work. I on the other hand don't really like dirt at all. Somehow it gets all over the house, even if everyone takes off their shoes the dirt seems to find its way into my living room carpet, kitchen floor, bathroom floors and believe it or not, in the bedrooms. I don't know how that happens but it does. Well here comes the pups, they are here to tell me it's time for their breakfast. More later.
Have a wonderful day.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Today is a special day for all you dad's out there so Happy Father's Day to you all.
My dad is almost 91 and still going strong. He has a wonderful sense of humor and enjoys watching old westerns and eating seafood. Yesterday I cooked him lobster for dinner and he really enjoyed it. Today we are having a BBQ with the family. Hot dogs, chips and watermelon. There is no way this crowd is getting lobster, there are so many of us it's a wonder we can remember everyone's names. There will be lot of little kids here, all his great great grandchildren. He loves watching them swim and play. They all love their grandpa too. Well better go and get ready for the crowd that will be arriving soon.
Have a wonderful day!

THE POT RACK IS IN!

I have always wanted a pot rack and now I have one. After putting in can lighting in my kitchen the electrician asked if I was going to have a pot rack over my island. I have always wanted one but thought there wasn't enough room. Not so, said the electrician, there's plenty of room, even one with lights. I found one, brought it home and it was installed yesterday. I am really loving it. I even have some fresh Rosemary hanging from it drying. There is nothing like fresh spices, basil, rosemary, etc. So far I just have basil and rosemary started but the cilantro is starting to sprout. Anyway my pot rack is beautiful and I am very happy. Now my kitchen is a little bit more homey. When I get the painting done and the light over the breakfast table and the tile on the back splash it should be almost complete. The only thing I am having a problem with is the texture on the wall. I don't know exactly what I want so I'm leaving the walls in one section of the kitchen bare until I figure it out.
Have a wonderful day!

I LOVE CRAZY BANANAS

The picture I just posted, Melting Bananas is a favorite of mine. It was so much fun to do. I painted this one for a food show and it also took second place in a still life exhibit. I love doing crazy abstracts that make no sense like melting bananas, or flat pears, or smashed grapes. This particular painting is done in acrylic but doing paintings like this one in watercolors is just as fun especially when the colors flow all over the canvas. I'm going to my studio in a little while and try and come up with a painting with a theme for Stars and Stripes for our local fair.
Have a wonderful day!

Melting Bananas

FANS and LIGHTS and LIGHTS and FANS

The last couple of weeks I have had new lighting and fans installed in my house. I'm in love with my new fan in my living room. It is a double header, two fans on either side, and they tilt in all directions. Boy does this fan move the air around. I love it! I also love my new lights in my living room. They can be turned every which way and show off my art work. I had them all on last night and went outside and looked through the window. Boy did the art work look good. No more dark places in the living room either. I have a new fan in the dining room and in my bedroom and in all the other bedrooms in the house. I have a new fan in the puppies room too. Last night all the kids in the house told me I had enough fans in the house and I couldn't buy any more fans. Hmmmm, I might need one over the table in the breakfast nook.
Have a wonderful day!