Calif January

I'm in California for my usual one week a month, visiting with my 92 year old mother. I see to her needs, the needs of the house, the garden, the car, and the connection of my 21st century splintered self to her wise and funny soul. It's a pretty good trade off. When I can slow down and really listen....there is still much to learn.

Wet and chilly I walk around the garden where the moss is green on the Japanese lantern, and the empty trees rattle. There is a redwood tree nook, where one tree planted fifty years ago has sprung a family. The ground is springy and soft there and it is very quiet. Christmas cactus is blooming exceedingly well and all the perennially green things are vigorously so.

I've just heard from a painter in the Netherlands, Fons Bloemen, whose work I like very much and who has a wonderful list of links to figurative painters. Not always something so easy to come by.
At least here in the U.S. ....in big cities where more conceptual art or abstract art is paid more attention. I'm adding his website to my list of links....be sure to check him out.