leaving Vienna May 2014

Leaving Vienna

Hate to go but mom is ill and had to get back to LA as quickly as possible.  These are the last things I did before we got the phone call

the end of the building on Badgasse

ghost building

Secession on gold leaf

Carolyn Carradine Art ©

Max

There is a bird who comes and perches right outside my window on the rail when it is dark, 4:42am to be exact, then sings until the sun comes up..about an hour.  He does the same thing at dusk till the sun goes down.  In between he apparently takes care of whatever bird business he attends to during the daylight hours.  Occasionally I hear him on another rooftop but dawn and dusk he is here without fail.  I didn't know what kind of bird he was.  It really isn't a song bird, he almost talks but it is lovely, not squawking by any means. Henry told me he was an Amsel.  We looked that up and he is a blackbird.  As in "Blackbird singing in the dark of night...."  I named him Max as I have grown very attached to him.  When Henry and I were on the roof midday a few days ago he came up to show us a worm or bug he had in his mouth.  He doesn't seem afraid but gets no closer than about 5feet.  I put out bread but he ignores it. Yesterday morning I painted him and when he came in the afternoon he came very close and I made some corrections to my painting.  It was almost as though he was posing.  He opens his mouth very wide and he does seem to respond when I talk back to him.  I'm in love and have become very dependent on his daily visits.

Carolyn Carradine Art ©

Vienna may 2014

Here we are in Vienna, at the top of the world in our new place in the 9th.  We've been here for almost a month, just chilling and getting over horrendous jetlag.  Last night we had the incredible pleasure of attending Karina's violin performance.  She is amazing, talented and beautiful.  So happy Henry found her.  They are such a good couple and so caring of each other.

Chris and I have been trying to get out to paint, had to go to the huge art store today to get more supplies. Art stores are always fun, and this is the best one ever. Of course we bought more than was on our list! Mostly we've been awake all night and asleep most of the day...ugh!

There is a blackbird that comes every morning and starts singing in the dark at 4:42am for at least an hour. It is 5:45 and he is still at it.  The sun is now up and that seems to be his job, making sure it comes up.  Soon he will disappear and return at disk to put the sun to sleep.  Again he will sing until it is dark.

The weather has been beautiful and perfect except for one rainy day.  It has been a very relaxing visit so far after all the difficulties and stress we had in California with a horrific heroin addict tenant who went on a successful crusade to make our lives hell, because we had the gall to evict her because she was not paying rent and using our home as a "party house" and renting out every inch to whomever on airbnb.  We had to cut our last trip short because of her antics and fear for our home.  We have learned a lot about who has the rights and who doesn't. After three months of very hard work and unbelievable stress and dealing with huge unknowns we are out of the woods and although more to be done (cosmetics only) could leave this time with a clear mind.  As well as mom being in the best shape she has been in in a long time.  So we are happily resting and enjoying being with Henry,
Karina and her family.

Day before yesterday as I was leaving our place to paint I heard a great deal of commotion right around the corner.  It was the demolition of two small two story buildings that had been built in 1747.  They were having a hard time with the wrecking machinery as the buildings were so sound, tree trunks supporting the roof, hand made tiles etc.  The neighbors all gathered around some in tears, told me Franz Schubert came to the cafe that was in one of these lovely little buildings.  They had withstood, various Turkish and other invasions, bombings of two world wars but couldn't withstand the greed of the bankers and the investor who will build nothing quite so study or elegant but will provide far more income and profit and isn't that what it is all about?  I was going to paint it but the dust was too much and the devastation moving too quickly.  It is now a pile of rubble.  Our bombers missed it but the Austrians did this to themselves, a piece of history gone forever

So far I have only managed to do two very quick Plein Air paintings. One on the Danube and the other of Stephensdom.  It is lovely painting outside with Chris and his paintings are so different from mine although we paint the same subject.  He has the architects eye but the artist's soul.  We will soon run out of wall space.  Chris and Henry worked on paintings while I relaxed yesterday and only
painted my toes.

Carolyn Carradine Art ©

Happy Easter!!!!
Today is beautiful and Chris and I are looking forward to spending the day with my mom for the special Easter Brunch and egg hunt for all the grandchildren and great grandchildren where she lives. Yesterday when I saw her she was getting her hair done and debating about what to wear, so she is quite excited.  It should be fun.
I am happy to say that I have completed my Lent Project on time and it can be viewed in all it's glory with the stories that go along with the 40 paintings on my website carolyncarradine.com under Lent Project 2014.  Not in frames yet, still too wet!
I wish everyone love and family and peace and rebirth

Carolyn Carradine Art ©

Lent Project 2014

This year I decided my Lent Project, (One piece of artwork per day) would be all Plein Air and as usual completed in one day on the spot.  This year I am limiting it to 40 (since Lent is actually about 46 days) and being consistent.  All 8"X10" stretched canvas oil paintings.  California will be the theme, but an emphasis on the 21 Missions.  I will visit them all so will pretty much cover the state.  For the full story, it can be found on my website carolyncarradine.com under Lent Project 2014.  This will include some of the people and experiences along the way.
The other 19 paintings will be landscapes of California.   This is a very ambitious project with a lot of travel thrown in so I am starting a bit early to hopefully have everything finished and framed by Easter.

Here are the first 7

Santa Barbara

Ventura

Santa Ines

San Fernando

La Purisima

San Diego

San Luis Rey

Carolyn Carradine Art ©

The Giving Tree on Kanan ---November 2013 to February 2014


To go back to my first Blog about the tree on Kanan that I decorated and then it took on a life of it's own with ornaments being added almost daily.  Very special and magical, but the story continues...

Before we left for Vienna for New Year's and what was to be a 6 week vacation I wanted to take the ornaments off, not let them just deteriorate on the tree as I felt I had become it's curator.  So on Dec. 26 I removed all the ornaments and carefully wrapped them and put them in my closet for safekeeping until the day after next Thanksgiving when I would return them to the tree.

When we returned from Vienna and I drove by the tree I saw it had signs on it.  I did a U turn on Kanan to park and read the signs.  They were quite professional but had been on the tree for a long time and were at the bottom and askew

I called Agoura Liquor and Deli and told them the story and assured them the ornaments were safe and sound and would return for next Christmas.  They laughed and were fine with that.

Then as Valentine's Day was approaching I decided to decorate the tree for Valentine's Day with red bows to continue the fun, so ordered a large roll of beautiful red wide satin ribbon from Amazon. On Feb 2, I put about 20 bows on and it still looked a little sparse so cut about 30 more pieces of ribbon that night.  When I returned the next day to add them there was one bow holding a baggie full of all the other pieces of ribbon with a note

What???  This is a tree by the side of the road, doesn't belong to anyone.  So I opened the bag put the bows back on the tree and added the others I had cut and left a note in the baggie tied to the tree

I then went on over the hill to Michael's and got three big sparkly hearts and a garland so there would be no confusion as to the meaning of the red bows.  When I got back to the tree about 2  hours later all the bows were again in the baggie tied to the tree with a single bow.  Now I was getting pretty pissed.  I opened the bag, no new notes, but the message was clear.  I tied all 50 or so ribbons into bows back on the tree and added the hearts and the garland and left another note...

Today the 12th the ribbons were still there but the hearts and garlands are gone.  I think the joy of the  tree has been quashed by Cranky Pants.  Someone else can take over for me....or not

Carolyn Carradine Art ©

Today at Pt. Dume

Beautiful day, whales, dolphins, lots of people and sunshine
partially Plein Air and partially Carolyn

Carolyn Carradine Art ©