Big 5-O Winners!

If you've been paying any kind of attention, you know that today, Friday May 8th is Day 50 of my 100-days-of-painting journey. I'm working with Mavis Penney of Labrador, Canada, to paint daily for 100 days (minus weekends, of course). You can follow along to see what we've accomplished Off The Highway.

To celebrate this major milestone, Mavis and I decided to give away our Day 50 paintings. All who left comments, no matter how brief or how clever, had their names put into a hat (or in my case, a lovely Nancy Fairbanks bowl). This morning Mavis and I met via phone line, and with great fanfare and anticipation drew out the winning names.

The winner of my painting, "Ponies in Light", whose name was pulled out of a hat by my cohort Mavis, is blog commenter Cory. Congratulations, and thanks for sharing this journey with us!

I drew Vicki's name, who will soon receive Mavis' lovely 5 x 7 watercolor "Ice Melting at Birch Island". Congrats to you, too!

Gosh, I hope they're as excited as we are!

Which leaves the question...how will we celebrate Day 100?

Cake and ice cream for everyone?

Stay tuned!

The Big 5-0

Yesterday was as perfect a day as one can get on this planet. The sky was achingly blue, the kind of blue that is so pure and rich and complete that it's impossible to describe. The sun was deliciously warm, with barely a breeze to ruffle the new grass.

To celebrate, I wrote a song. It's to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." I've changed it to "The Twelve Hours of Spring", in honor of those perfect 12 hours of absolutely flawless springtime weather. Sing it with me, won't you? And let's start it at the end. We don't have all day.

In the twelfth hour of springtime my true love gave to me...

hyacinth in bloom

breezes softly wafting

buds peeking meekly

squirrels dancing wildly

trees budding leaflets

cardinals a-calling

clouds white as cotton

Tooooo-lips pure red!

gold finches flitting

neighbor mowing loudly

daffodils a-bloom

(drum roll please)

and a sky that's as blue as can beeeeeeeee!

And if that isn't enough to get you excited about spring, Mavis and I are getting ready to celebrate the Big 5-0.

We're at Day 35 in our quest to discover what's Off The Highway, our 100 paintings in 100 days project. When we reach Day 50, the Big 5-0, on May 8th, 2009, we'll immortalize the occasion by giving away that day's paintings to two lucky people.

Here's how you can get in on the festivities-

Skip on over to Off The Highway, and say hello. That's it. You could expand on that if you'd like, and actually say something else, like, "Wow, your work is fabulous!", or "Sign me up for the Big 5-0!", but a simple "hello" will do. We'll keep track, put the names into a hat and draw out the winners. How cool is that?

Day 35 Wetlands 5 x 7 oil on gessoed board

No, really, how cool is that?