I got back from my trip to the Netherlands and the Caucasus very happy with everything. My only regret was that I hadn't found (or made) the time to paint a watercolor daily. Luckily the Texas heat enabled me to finish two of the attempts that I made in Georgia. Georgia is a country full of beautiful places and my son, Gerald, and I were fortunate to see a lot in only a few days.
In Tbilisi on our first day together my husband, Robert, showed us the old town and the fortress on the hill. Soon afterwards I found a spot for a painting, while Robert and Gerald went to see more of the fortifications. I had barely begun and there she was, a little girl holding out her hand with a winning smile. (I had just been instructed to not give money to "gipsy" children, they were being kept out of school to beg.) So, I told her "no" in Russian. She did remind me of a stray dog who ventured into our yard many years ago, the same heartwarming message: "I am so glad I found you!" She was direct, but polite and very intuitive and it was that intuition that helped her navigate in the world. It was my first encounter of this kind and I was glad she did sit down and we talked a little. She said, she was 12, her parents were dead, she had a 16 year-old brother and lived with her grandmother. Her name was Zarina. I continued on my painting in the Georgian sun. She wanted to paint as well, I gave her some paper, a pencil, sharpener and eraser and she proceeded to draw the one flower she knew over and over and to write her first name in curly Georgian letters. Last of all she covered the page with rows of letters, she was obviously practicing her handwriting. My husband and Gerald had checked on us once and when they came again, she informed me of it well before they got there. She would not look at them, not even for a photograph. She had green eyes, that were striking with her dark hair and red shirt. However, I had to go and told her to keep the pencil etc. and gave her the little notebook. A minute or so later when I looked over my shoulder she was nowhere to be seen.
Later in the week when I met Nora and David (both from the Netherlands), I was very glad to find out more about street children. David was helping them (and handicapped children) in Georgia. He told me the street children did have parents who didn't or couldn't take care of them. The stories they told were made up and some of them even pretended to be deformed etc. It had been a struggle, but there was a good home for them now. He told me a couple of success stories, but money was getting hard to come by in the Netherlands as well because of the recession. I remembered Zarina had said that she went to school, but she acted like a child who was learning how to write and did not often have a piece of paper...
The watercolor I started with Zarina is finished. It is the view of Tbilisi from the hill with the Armenian church in the foreground.
The next watercolor is the view of an interesting building seen from the hotel. The architecture really made it stand out. I asked about it and all the info I got was that there had been parties there in Soviet time and that people still lived on the upper stories. The first evening we had seen the small arts and craft market on the steps in front of it and glanced into the courtyard inside. It seems a building from before the revolution..
The last post never got the pictures I planned to insert, the photographs not having turned out to my standards. I include it though for the sake of clarity
We made it to the Netherlands fine yesterday. I am up early with the birds giving their peaceful morning concert between 4 and 5 am. Why? Just making the best of jet lag!
We had a very enjoyable first day in company with my brother and his family and a dear cousin. The weather was warm for here 26 C. It felt nice even a little cool to us used to the Texas heat. My son Gerald is enjoying being back in Europe after 10 years. It is fun to watch him taking it all in and making his debut in speaking Dutch. He was very impressed with the old, tall trees.
This is one of my new landscapes in oil. It represents the Texas Hill Country in early spring, just before the wildflowers in fact.
I meant to keep busy while my husband, Robert, was overseas. I must have overdone it because it seems there is no time for everything I am involved in.
The wildflowers were wonderful this year and I got to paint and photograph them to my heart's content. The colors were so intense. I had spring fever and enjoyed my early morning expeditions to sweet smelling fields where I painted in the company of butterflies, scissor tails and humming birds.
Next came the website, thank you for all your suggestions! The new website is up and running. There are just a few things to be adjusted. It is still www.verasart.com.
Then came the Fiesta Show. Thank you all for stopping by, taking the time to look at my work on busy Alamo Plaza! I met nice people from all over the world: Poland, Mexico, South Africa, Canada, Alaska and lots of other States and even from San Antonio.
Now Gerald and I are preparing to go to Europe and visit Robert in Georgia (the country). My goal is to paint something every day while I am there and to take lots of pictures.
Have good summer!
As I am more and more becoming the successful artist I want to be, I want to make changes to my website www.verasart.com. Since my family members are all busy, I found a professional who is willing to assist me.
I have some ideas and remember a few suggestions I got, like a page to leave comments.
What do you think? If you have time in the next week, drop me a line and we will have a better idea what improvements are needed.
Thank you very much!
Vera
Well, I am attending workshops by British artist, Edward Povey, and I like the results.
Most of you know I have been drawing pictures of Misha,
our eldest son. I want to show you my latest drawing done after the 3 day drawing workshop last month. Misha 
told me he recognized himself in the picture. (The drawing is softer, I had to use auto-correct for the blog. I will post the softer version on my website.)I also took an all day painting class and worked on a "problem painting", a self-portrait, begun 2 years ago which I had put away because in spite of hard work, I wasn't able to do with it what I wanted. Now Edward doesn't paint for you. He gives advice, if you ask for it, offers suggestions and will show you techniques. Technique is what his art classes are all about. All he did to the self portrait was 
show us how to put a glaze on it after explaining that the colors weren't "talking" to one another which was like having non-tuned instruments playing together. He explained how to choose what colors to put in the glaze. Then he encouraged me to work on the painting before the glaze dried. As you can see the painting is not finished yet. I didn't work on the eyes or mouth, I need to re-create the lighting and work on the whole. I am planning to finish it in the next weeks and will show it to you then.
