Everything is A-OK

Just in case any friends are wondering if we're OK here in Houston after the flooding, I wanted to post something to let everyone know that everything is fine here on the north side of the city limits. It did rain pretty hard, but other than the power flickering, it didn't even mess up my plants. I can see from news footage that it looked pretty bad on the highways and heading downtown, earlier today, though. Any plans I had to head in that direction were immediately postponed, and it's business as usual here  -- for us, at least. Not everyone has been that fortunate, but there are some ways to help out in the communities that have been affected:

Red Cross - Gulf Coast Chapter (Houston)

Red Cross - Central Texas Chapter (Austin)

One of my favorite local charities is:
Houston Food Bank

And in Austin:
Hays Food Bank


While  we've been staying in to avoid the bad weather, I've been working on some medieval illumination-inspired art this week. This first piece already sold but a couple more have already come along in the meantime.

I can't promise I'll make it through the whole alphabet any time soon but I thought these little 3 x 3 inch canvases would be perfect for illuminated letters! The first is A is for armadillo, which I don't think any medieval monks would have seen, but if they did, they might draw them something like this:

And another colorful dragon, this time being battled by one of those rabbits with a sword you sometimes see in these drawings...

These are a lot of fun, so more are coming soon!

After the hurricane

Back up in New Jersey in time to help out with hurricane preparations, I was plastering patches on the wall where water was getting in, in the basement, until late last night to try to minimize damage. As it turns out very little water got in down there except, of course, in the room where my things are being stored. Fortunately they were all up on shelves or tables, or in plastic tubs, so the puddle of water that leaked into that room did not damage anything of interest or value.

And today, giant mushrooms were already growing in the back yard!

We didn't even lose power, though I had prepared tons of raw veggie food items and a lot of non-perishables, in case we did, since we don't have any non-electric cooking devices - not even a camping stove.

Yesterday I did a small painting to pass some time, based on the popularity of this print in my shop I thought I'd start doing some small ghost bottle paintings. Here is the first, "Elixir of Arminta." I need to get more small canvases, but when I do, expect more...

Also, here is a scan of the painting that I repainted last week, since I didn't have a scanner at my disposal when I finished it. I think the scan shows the colors much better than the photo did, since they are very vivid and bold here. The photo shows the colors in natural sunlight, but the scan more accurately represents how it looks indoors I think.