Vespa the Angel

Taken by Lynda Freeman

I have recently been posting my little paintings done a la Nancy Standlee. Nancy encouraged us to paint at least one angel in our exercises and this is mine. I have named her Vespa. Here's the reason why.

Monday, early evening, Robin took our oldest son, Andy, for a short ride around the block on our new Vespa 250cc scooter. To make a long story short, a young man pulled in front of him, headed for a drive way, and for some inexplicable reason, came to a complete stop on Robin's side of the street nearly cutting off Robin's side. Robin slowed down to let him pass across the lane but wasn't prepared for him to stop. He tried desperately to avoid a collision, but couldn't save it. As the scooter went down, Andy was able to gain his footing with his left leg and hop off the scooter before Robin collided with the SUV and he ended up on the pavement with scooter on top of him. His collar bone was broken, his shoulder, elbow, calf and ankle are pretty skinned up and his rib cage on his left side is still very sore. Sleeping at night is hard and finding a comfortable position takes effort. We are all VERY thankful that the injuries were as minimal as they were considering that it could have been so much worse.

If you have a mind to and feel led, please remember Robin in your prayers. It will be a six week healing process. He is already making progress but he's still pretty banged up. Lest anyone think this has deterred either of us from our love of scooting, you would be wrong. It has postponed our enjoyment of it but not squelched it. We'll both be back to scooting around town as soon as Robin is able and we have our scooter back. I just refuse to live in fear. We'll just have to be extra special careful when we are out and about. Oh yes...we will be wearing our helmets.


Thanks in advance for remembering Robin. Life can change in an instant, so please tell those you love...that you love them. It's all about the relationships, dear friends.

The Bee Keeper

"Bee Keeper" is the second offering in a series of smaller paintings (5x7) that were done under the tutelage of my friend and fellow Canvas by Canvas member, Nancy Standlee. For many months I have been contemplating my style of painting and have been wanting to move more towards the expressive rather than realistic. I'm not extremely good at realistic anyway. You simply have to paint to get better and I have not been doing that. Right now, Claire Harrigan is someone that I am very interested in studying. Nancy had Claire's recent book with her and I was immediately drawn to her style of design and use of color. It fascinated me and I've been wanting to try and learn to incorporate some of her style into my own. She is wonderful and I would love to meet her. But alas...she's Scottish and lives aboard.

Wedded Bliss on Paper

It's been a while since I've posted here or painted anything personal. Well, anything personal that I liked. Several weeks ago one of the Canvas by Canvas members, Nancy Standlee, gave a demonstration of what she has been learning at her myriad of workshops that she's been attending of late. Check out Nancy's blog . Anyway..I did six small 5x7 paintings that day and surprising I liked them. I am including one here. I've entitled it "Bliss". Or maybe I should entitle it "Hopeful Bliss". Either way, their future is yet to be.