The Giving Tree, oldest Sycamore in Malibu

The Malibu Lagoon

June 2015, Back in Malibu

 

The Sycamore is 160 years old, the oldest tree in Malibu and in danger of being chopped down for the left turn lane of the new Whole Foods complex.  A total of 3 feet is all it encroaches on the developer's plans.  Also to go are a whole row of very old Eucalyptus trees along PCH.  I sat on the ground in the Sycamore's glorious shade and painted it.  I was moved by its soft leaves under me, the beauty of it's branches above me and the cool breezes on a very hot day.

Earlier in the day I had painted the Malibu Lagoon. After I finished I felt called by the Sycamore, packed up my stuff and walked over the bridge to Cross Creekto paint the Sycamore while it was still there.

I would love to have some comments on how anyone feels about the different styles and emotions in these two paintings.  When I put them next to each other it doesn't seem possible they were painted the same day.

June 7, 2015

Just returned from the most amazing 2 and a half month trip.  We started out on the Seabourn Quest and did 14 days of transatlantic, nothing but water everywhere!  We made one stop in Madeira (Have some Madeira, M'Deara, it's oh so much nicer than beer a)  Funchal on Madeira is lovely and the flowers were gorgeous.  We then went on to Barcelona, Gaudi, and from there a train to Nimes to get a river cruise of the south of France. Avignon, Arles etc.  So much fun and so beautiful.  We decided to spend a few days in Paris and ran into Bethan and Pete so were able to spend a lovely evening and dinner with them. We spent a day with Mary Blake, an artist friend I hadn't seen in about 40 years.  She is painting and living in Montmartre.  Lovely time in Paris.  Spent a lot of time in the D'Orsay gorgeous and then to the horrific Frank Geary blight The Louis Vuitton Foundation.   As ridiculous pretentious and arrogant as it sounds.  Then the train to Zurich and on to Vienna.  We were to go from there to Russia for a 2 week river cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg but it didn't work out, last minute bait and switch.  We stayed in Vienna and had the best time.  Saw La Boheme at the Volksoper in German lots of museums, and found a house we fell in love with in Gloggnitz.  Keith was in Brussels filming and had some time off so came and spent 4 days with us and in the rain we recreated the 3rd man and went to all the locations we could find, saw the remaining Klimt's and just had a really terrific time.  Then a surprise Kristen Aspervig arrived with her family and we had two lovely meals with them.  Plus the joy of being with Henry and Karina, one dinner at the Ille's in multiple languages. museums and coffee with Patricia and 2 spectacular concerts of Karina's.  Karina and Henry had us over  when Keith was there, fixed dinner and performed some beautiful house music for us.  Such a lovely time, we hated to leave.  I fell in love with the blackbird "Max" who returned from last year to sing every morning and evening on our stairs. We formed a bond and he would come when I whistled for him.

 Three days before we left so did he.  He was old and had only one leg at the end.  I will miss him terribly.

Last scene of The Third Man

 From our suite 14 days of water

 At Friedensbruck a couple blocks from our apt.

 Alte Donau park

 Pont Le Sur D'Avignon, from our River Cruise in France

Bye Bye Blackbird