1. Relieve boredom
2. Distract from sadness
3. Brighten surroundings
4. Inspire you to be creative
5. Be a conversation piece
6. Match the sofa 😉
7. Color up your world
I bet you guys can think of a lot more!!
like maybe
8. Excuse for a Party!
Come see Margaret and Julie’s art at the Big Beautiful Art Party
Art Party Sat. Oct 7 (3-6) Margaret’s Home Studio, with Julie Dockery and her beautiful paintings!
796 Newington Dr. Clemmons, NC 27012
Only 195.00 contact margarethuntleyharrison@gmail.com
paypal available
Little Beauties for Christmas! Perfect for you Girl Cave! Available at Margaret Harrison Studio ( my Girl Cave) email margarethuntleyharrison@gmail.com or visit Hampton House Gallery on Coliseum Dr. Winston-Salem. 🙂
This is what painting does for me–washes away the dust!
You know this last few weeks I have been cleaning out closets because I wanted to usher in open space for the new, the simple, the lovely.
You know what I got??? 3 broken major appliances!!
First the upstairs toilet tank split and water flooded the bathroom and dripped through the smoke alarm opening, setting it off of course, endlessly until I figured out how to neuter the damn thing.
Then a few days later the microwave just completely stopped working. Went microwave shopping–not as expensive as I thought it would be but still blew a hole in my budget!!–I hate budgets!
Then went on a wonderful beach vacation with my guy Phil where we lay out under the stars and counted the constellations and strained to see some stars shoot across the heavens.
As soon as I got home from beach, I went for some ice for my water and behold: refrigerator freezer that has icing up for a while completely gave up the ghost–no ice–frost all over the whole freezer–not cooling properly.
Yep went refrigerator shopping and found the only refrigerator that would fit into my “custom space” and broke the bank even more.
This time, I wised up and bought the 150.00 5 year warranty on parts and service because the ice makers of this particular model (counter depth, not too high, not too wide for my small space) are pretty fragile.
Even so, when the refrigerator was delivered the manufacturer had decided place some sort of box on top of the thing which made it 3 inches too tall for my space and I had to call a cabinet guy to take down the cabinet, cut away the soffet and replace said cabinet for another 175.00. Whew!
And then I tempted fate–something I am prone to do . . . and cleaned out one more closet.
Then next day I wound up with teeny weeny little uti which fortunately my doctor trusted me to diagnose–rare these days (I love my doctor)—probably from having so much fun staying in shape on my bicycle–now you ladies know how our lady parts can be affected by the glorious biking.
What is this?
Is this the physics of action has an equal and opposite reaction? I don’t think I like this.
Existential angst. Or dust on the soul.
It’s often right around the corner, isn’t it? I know it is for me–
A first world problem–but never the less, it does accumulate . . . on the soul.
I know you all have similar stories of frustration and disappointment and the proverbial monkey wrench that life throws into our amazing plans for being peaceful, serene, joyful and relaxed and dare I say happy.
So after a couple weeks of recovery– doing very little but resting and watching lots of Netflix movies,
So I start planning my next painting. It’s a simple as that.
I paint for the same reason that folks climb Mt Everest, I believe–
to wash away the dust that accumulates on the soul from the mundanity of life.
Love you guys. ❤
I’m on vacation with my guy and good buddy Phil. We are having a very relaxing little late summer vacation at Topsail Beach, NC.
We’re having so much fun singing and playing guitar and uke together and riding bikes or riding bike that is–we have to ride one at a time because Mazie can’t be left alone (Phil’s beagle) because he says she will go nuts and tear up the place–
I forgot the cardinal rule of beach biking however–which I had learned earlier in life but clearly forgot–ride the first stint into the wind so that the wind has your back going home. I rode down to the point and thought–wow this is so easy–wow–I’m not even getting my heart rate up– Then turned around and came back into the wind blowing hard in my face–heart rate up!
The second day I biked which was yesterday I discovered that I had forgotten another cardinal rule of biking on the beach–really you’ve got to go at the lowest point of low tide–I thought I was fine biking a couple of hours off of dead low–nope! The sand was so soft and I kept slipping and sliding and skidding–the great thing about all this very frustrating slipping and almost falling off about 10 times was that I paused and took bunches of pictures of the breathtaking sky. 
I went swimming after my ride yesterday–Phil says there is a riptide in effect for today so that I can’t swim–boo–He’s bike riding now–I sent him into the wind.
Anyway, that’s my check in –the house is oceanfront and very close to the ocean so can hear the roar of the waves crashing–one of my favorite things in the whole world. I’m writing this from the front porch looking out over the big OOSH.
“Pronounciate” Oosh with a long o sound please.
I’m sharing some pictures of the sky that I took today with my iPhone on my beach bike ride. Enjoy! These are great fodder for future paintings, don’t you see. 😉
I love you guys! ❤
A couple weeks ago on July 4 exactly, Phil and I went on a lovely rainy day bike ride at the Meadowlark Greenway. There I saw 5 or 6 indigo buntings flitting among the bushes alongside the path. 
They are so abundant there.
I usually spot this breathtakingly beautiful little bird only from a distance sitting on telephone wires, confirming that it is indeed indigo bunting only by the light hitting it just right and upon hearing its complicated and beautiful song.
Thusly and therefore, I have always thought of them as shy–forgive the anthropomorphism.
But the gorgeous Meadowlark Greenway has brought indigo bunting to my eye level. So fun on my bike rides with Phil to have their company flitting and singing on the down low. 😉
Here’a little watercolor/collage I did a couple of years ago of the beautiful Indigo Bunting of which I speak. See–on the down low–like in the bushes beside the bike path.
And so: 3 Reasons I love Indigo Buntings.
Did ya know? I love you guys! ❤
I wanted to share some drama with you–the kind of drama that I’m particularly fond of:
So I found meece droppings under my sink yesterday.
I called on the best “Have a Heart” meece catcher and overall animal engineer that I know–my guy, Phil Mcvay.
And he brought up his official “Have A Heart” mouse trap
and we caught a certified little squiggly-nose daddy meece this morning
and Phil came to get him–cute little thing–and release him into the woods behind my house.
Phil came back up tonight to reset Have a Heart because I’m pretty sure I have not only a daddy but a son meece along with a couple daughters and a mother meece, at least.
Anyway, later after the trap setting–while fixing a late dinner for myself– I tripped the meece catcher with my foot and Phil had to come back up to reset–I was tempted to pretend like we just didn’t catch one tonight and hum de dum I didn’t trip it with my clumsy foot because of asking Phil to trudge up the hill after hours and all, but I knew he (Phil) would be on to my ruse–he’s that kind of all knowing animal engineer.
That’s the end of the story.
Anyway, just in case you were wondering, which you probably weren’t, this is the kind of drama I like . . .
Nay LOVE—Maybe because I’ve experienced so many in and out
spinnings
of the other kinds of drama in my life, I appreciate, even more than I did before, this kind of ordinary extraordinary little drama.
If this lovable though deadly meece catcher, good ole Bob the Cat were still here, I wouldn’t have needed “Have a Heart.” Don’t let this elegant pose fool you. 😉
It’s very, very messy you guys–and playful, and joyful, and happy– being me.
Many many creative people are like this, you know–we play a lot– our art is our play, actually.
As you may have noticed, lately, I’ve been playing a lot online.
It’s been fun–makes me feel the way I used to feel as a kid at the beach, building little sandcastles, and then tearing them down again just for fun, or watching with wonder as the ocean has its way with them–filling up the moats, smoothing out the edges, flattening the pointier parts, turning them into something differently beautiful.
I have made a few changes in the last year:
I’ve included my maiden name Huntley in my moniker: reason being–when one googles “Margaret Harrison artist,” at the very top of the list
is a UK feminist who has swords and fangs and such coming out of the nether regions of the female anatomy–
not that there’s anything wrong with all of that, of course–just not my style.😉
I will continue sharing my ART (paintings and photos) here accompanied by tiny stories about my life as an artist both today and in the past.
I LOVE having you here. Though I paint mainly to please myself, it would be so lonely without YOU here to ride along with me.
This original is available and I wouldn’t part with it because it is my favorite, unless I could make an exact reproduction of it (near to perfect, anyway) in just about any size I want through fineartamerica.com. So If you’re interested in owning this masterpiece ( it is a masterpiece to me–I’ll share why at some point) please message me. 🙂 I love you guys. ❤
Is this painting out of balance? The vase is clearly on the left side of the picture with lots of stripes and flowers coming out of the top of the vase and lopping over into the other side of the picture–both left quadrants and top right quadrant very full of visual activity.
Now look at the lower right quadrant with its peaceful blue green hue or “negative space” as us artists like to call it.
So is this painting balanced?
If someone were to peer into 1 quadrant of your or my life (this quadrant could be a day or week or even month), they might conclude imbalance:
For instance vacation week with lots of eating and imbibing,
or an especially difficult, busy frenetic day or week at work,
or an especially slow day or week at work,
or a day or week that you laid around all day and rested,
or a day or week that you went on a donut binge,
or a day or week in which you went on a green smoothie binge,
or day or week in which you painted all day and forgot to eat,
or a day or week in which you ran around in the car taking children where they needed go,
or a day or week when you went from fast food restaurant to fast food restaurant for all 3 meals of the day.
(Actually if you are the mother of small children or even tweens and teens these quadrants seem to last for years 😉
Anyway, in my life I go on painting binges sometimes–like when I did 100 for 100–and I led a rather unbalanced life while I was doing that–eating lots of lifesavers–the yummy kind with the huge “no-no high fructose corn syrup” which addicts you–I used to love those big Charms “all day” suckers–that lasted a couple hours if you were careful– when I was a little girl. Nothing better than curling up on my bed with a good Nancy Drew book and a lemon, or orange or cherry Charms sucker.
After my art opening, I was still in a bit of a flurry catching up on the continuing education in order to renew my counselors license so I can continue to pay the bills and then completing a couple of painting commissions–
Whew–got a little out of whack in the physical exercise, healthy eating and relaxing quadrant of my life.
And my brother Captain Bob came for a visit which is wonderful and we eat good when he’s here even if it’s not all good for you.
So this weekend, I have a blank slate–to catch my breath and plan for a very relaxing quadrant ahead. Dog sitting, lying around, sitting around, big brisk walks and healthier eating and hiking and long vigorous bike rides with my guy.
I’m intending a month, or two, very similar to the 4th quadrant of the painting above–serene light green blue and still–except for the vigorous walking and biking of course. 😉
Yesterday I took the day off from blogging.
I suspect that the most valuable and full of wonder things happen for us on days when we feel
least productive, least focused, least intent on making the world a better place-hah!–days of resting, dreaming, piddling, chatting, biking, eating, and so on and so on. All of which I did yesterday.
In my dream state I decided what story I will write for you next week: It’s called
“Fuzz L Furr and Why I Paint.”
It’s a pretty, pretty good little story about a kitty we used to have back in the day–sort of–we sort of had him–he sort of had us–by the name of Fuzz L. Furr and how good ole Fuzz inspires me to paint.
No picture of Fuzz L. Sorry, he was camera shy.
Hugs, Margaret
I Paint Beauty For Us 