A Heart for You and Holiday Thoughts

I have been busy doing rockscaping this week, but my thoughts have been on the need for gun control after the Newtown tragedy.  I am sure glad I didn't have to work in a school with armed guards.  It was bad enough when the drug dogs came through the middle school library when I worked in New Mexico!

The kaleidoscope I made first has a hidden heart shape, can you find it?

 Hidden Hearts in Sympathy of the Newtown  Tragedy Victims

Rock Formation at top of Brins Mesa

 Merry Christmas to All

We will be sponsoring an Albert Handell Workshop this summer in Lubec:  

http://alberthandellworkshop.com/ so plan on this at the end of August!  August 26th to 30th, 2013

Michael Chesley Johnson, Facilitator

Our House for Sale, Santa Fe, and my New Fabric

As I walk around our community, I am mindful that we may be relocating to Santa Fe next winter so I am going to document our natural area in kaleidoscopes this winter.  For artistic income and the possibility that I could get a meaningful job in New Mexico, we are searching for a new house.

Anyone interested in a great house in a great community:  http://sedonahomeforsale.blogspot.com/ or zillow:  http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/10680-E-Oak-Creek-Valley-Dr-Cornville-AZ-86325/2135977500_zpid/  

Here are the kaleidoscopes for the week.  They are all from photographs I took of the Spring Creek Trail which is a short 2 blocks from my house!  It is amazing the variety of colors we get in our AZ fall and winter seasons.  It helps to have blue skies, brown leaves and bare limbs, and green and brown grasses all at the same time!

My kaleidoscopes in fabric are now available:  http://www.spoonflower.com/collections/37457  I have started with 30 designs, but plan to expand if I sell any!

The End of Fall and My Wonderful Hiking Group

The best thing about Sedona is all the wonderful hiking trails we have in combination with the best Fall climate I have found anywhere.  Several winters ago I joined a wonderful hiking group of women who have been hiking once or twice a week with their dogs since 1996.  This week we ventured out the Vultee Arch Road to the Secret Canyon trail.  The road is not maintained that it is probably the last time I will venture out there in a vehicle.

If you want to buy a few metal prints of some of my kaleidoscopes, please try this link:
http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/trina+stephenson/metal+prints.  You can also use the drop down menu and order cards and other items from this link also.

Isn't Southwestern vegetation great!

This one features the last red maple leaf of Fall in the center area!

the view through the arch in the red rocks where we had our lunch!

Come out and enjoy some wonderful weather and plein air painting opportunities:  

http://paint sedonapaintsedona.com/

Wonderful Vegetation at Red Rock State Park

We took an early morning hike at Red Rock State Park this AM.  I find it still hot in Sedona so we try to finish our hiking by 10 AM.  There were still some beautiful yellow cottonwood trees down by the Oak Creek, but my eye was caught by some especially large prickly pear cacti, some ancient junipers, and some sycamores which have lost most of their leaves so you can see the structure of their limbs.

Prickly Pears--Looks Like Fabric Art!

Ancient Tree How Old Are You?

Twisted Together-- a sycamore love Story

Magical Point Lobos in Carmel, CA

While Michael Chesley Johnson has been painting, I have been taking lots of photos for my kaleidoscopes.  It is truly magical here in Carmel.  If only the real estate was not so expensive....

Here are a few kaleidoscopes.  The titles explain the subject mater:

Sea Lion Salute

Point Lobos Lace

Coastal California

The Beginning of a New Season--Fall in Arizona

We are fortunate to enjoy Fall weather and colors from September well into November by travelling from Canada to Arizona.  My last blog was a month ago in Acadia National Park where the maples were rosy red.  Here in AZ, everything is colorful now from willows to cottonwoods even to maples.  Most people think it is just a desert here, but we have lots of familiar deciduous trees at well.  Below is a kaleidoscope done from a photo taken today on the Chuckwagon Trail in Sedona:

Yesterday we took a walk on a trail we have always called the "landing pad" since a helicopter could easily land there, but which now has been named by the Forest Service as the "Secret Slick Rock" trail.  It has everything that I love about the the Southwest:  beautiful rocks, interesting vegetation, distant views, sunny skies, and absolute quiet.  Here is my "landing pad" kaleidoscope tribute:

If you are from a Northern climate, the Sedona area is just becoming nice with temperatures declining from the 80's during the day only to the 50's in the coldest time.  Winter hiking and painting are ideal.  By March, it is becoming way to hot for me, but we tough it out until early April since most of Michael's students seem to like the heat.  If you enjoy 50 and 60 degree sunny and warm weather, come to Sedona in December, January or February and take a http://paintsedona.com/ workshop with Michael Chesley Johnson.

A few random images of the season in Bernard, Maine

The french easel and the blue gloves

 One of my favorite Fall flowers:  the hydrangea  

The older ones are large bushes and this one happened to be drapped across a beautiful fence

The mussel diver

She dove for mussel's in her wet suit along with her companions in the late morning, then she set up a cooker and ate them with melted butter for lunch outdoors!  It looked like a nice lunch to me.  Something that is not so uncommon in Maine, but you would not see everywhere....

A Few More Mushrooms

The first frost has not yet arrived, but it is coming soon.  The air is cooler and since we have gotten over 7 inches of rain in the past few weeks, the mushrooms are having one of their best displays in years!  One of the best places to view the mushrooms is in Herring Cove Provincial Park on the trail from the campground to the beach.

Mushrooms and More Mushrooms

After over 5 inches of rain this week, the mushrooms have exploded.  I took lots of pictures this week, but one particular picture led to a series of kaleidoscopes.  I actually only used the top one, but the hidden colors were amazing.  You will be seeing mushroom kaleidoscopes for a few more weeks as I explore all these interesting shapes!

mushroom with green center

mushroom with blue center

mushroom with cream center and brown star

mushroom with brown center

Fog and Reflections

I took a trip on the Lubec-Eastport Ferry this week to support the Ferry.  I did learn that they will be running at least another year so let's all support them in this effort.  In fact, there may even be an Eastport-St Andrews Ferry next year if all the security details can be worked out.  This will help the area tremendously although I really would like to see a St Andrews-Campobello Ferry some day!  It would help Campobello residents immensely with banking, getting to the mainland and other necessities of living in a country without having to go to another country to get back to the country of residence, and the tourists would enjoy it too.

The trip over featured wonderful reflections in the water and the trip back featured tremendous fog.   The weather changes quickly in the Passamaquoddy Bay and Bay of Fundy regions which is part of why I love it here.

Fog Surrounding Pirate Ship HMSBounty

The day we went to Eastport was the first day of their pirate festival so this ship was docked there.

Fog at the Pier

Reflections Before Fog Settled In

Maine Rocks

I took a mini vacation for two days this week and went with my parents to the Schoodic Peninsula which has a small part of  Acadia National Park. We looked at lots of rocks and I found out  that my fascination with rocks must be hereditary.  My parents and my grandparents all collected them!  I created the 3 kaleidoscopes below from pictures which featured the beautiful rocks of that area!

Today is our last official day of the season in the FriarsBayGallery.com.  After today's open studio tour, please call us for an appointment to view Michael's work.  Michael heads out on Tuesday for a painting trip to the Grand Canyon called Plein Air on the Rim which is part of the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art.  Last year he did well with painting sales which benefit the Grand Canyon National Park in their effort to establish an Art Museum on the Rim.  He will certainly be seeing lots of rocks in the next 2 weeks!

Red Sunflowers and Studio Tour Saturday, September 1st

In late May, I carefully put in the ground 45 sunflower seeds from the OSC seed company.  The seed pack for Tournesol Fantasia showed a variety of colors and shapes.  What actually germinated was a row of really tall(over 7 feet tall) red sunflowers!  They made a great subject for my kaleidoscopes...

Spiderwebs and The BOOK

A series of 8 kaleidoscopes-- all of them have a spider web in them with some more obvious than others:

My book is done with 155 images!

http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/nature/kaleidoscopes-emphasizing-geometry-in-nature-and-symmetry-7849036  You can preview and order from this link.

Next week I have a series of red sunflowers for you which are probably my most striking images yet.