Nora in Naples

Nora Kasten and Susan Roux

Hello, I'm back from Florida! I hope you all had a good week. I'm relaxed, refreshed and ready to paint! Thank you all for the warm wishes for a great vacation. It certainly was.

Nora Kasten was so kind as to invite my family and I to her home. How wonderful it was to visit with a fellow blogger! Posted is a photo of us in her studio. Her work in progress is up on her easel behind us. I'm certain I'm not alone in admiring her lovely, romantic oil paintings. I can't tell you how excited I was to have the opportunity to view them in person. I must tell you, Nora is as lovely as the work that pours out of her.

Her home is a dream gallery! I never expected to arrive at such a splendid place filled with dozens and dozens of her amazing paintings. Room after room she took me to see them all. It was a slow tour as I absolutely had to stop to admire each and every one of them! They are magnificent on the internet, but as you well know, a photo of a painting never does the actual work justice. In life, these jewels sent shivers up my spine. Her use of saturated color coupled with her dreamy brushstroke is energizing and captivating. I couldn't take my eyes off of them!

She treated us to a lovely lunch where I sipped red wine and our "get acquainted" conversation never left art. I've written to you before of my travels and how I meet with artists. I urge you to try it for yourself. It will become the highlight of your holiday! Art connects us. Its a bond that can instantly make you feel like family. You all experience it here through blogs, but it doesn't stop when you meet in person. It escalates!

If you'd like to read about some of my various experiences meeting artists, click these different entries. Don't give up, where I met and painted with artists Mat Grogan and Dave Hayes, John Morris and Owen Rohu.

You may think that you'd be lost for conversation meeting with a stranger, but believe me, in every instance time just flies and conversations flow easily and freely. As Nora and I talked endlessly, she played a DVD of Richard Schmid with the volume off. In one direction I viewed him creating a masterpiece and in every other direction my eye was fed and stimulated by all her exhibited art. Her kind, welcoming and bubbly nature made us feel instantly at home.

The four hours we spent together whizzed by. I didn't want to leave. Nora, I hope I didn't overstay my welcome. You and your husband were a delight. Thank you for making us feel so welcomed.

I must tell you, Nora has painted countless self portraits. They are all wonderful and full of light. One of my favorite paintings hung as a focal point, in a place of grandeur. It is a painting she did of her husband some years back. I absolutely loved what she captured with paint. Men sitting in their suits don't usually hold much appeal for me. But his kindness and her affection for him shown with great visibility through the paint she applied. Nora, I don't know if you've ever posted this masterpiece of yours, but I hope you find it appropriate to share at some point. Its a wonderful work that can be appreciated even if you're not the wife...

Thank you Nora. I hope our journey forward blossoms further than blogging. I truly enjoyed our conversation and hope to continue it.

(Photograph by Michael McAllister)

Don't give up

Finding artists to paint with me in Ireland wasn't easy. This land of lush greenery is green for a reason. Rain. Daily rain as I was told and this past summer had been exceedingly wet. Artists were not accustomed to setting up their easels with the constant threat of rain. Painting in plein air is different from studio painting and they had not developed skills for this. A bit of anxiety set in as they thought they would paint with a skilled plein air painter. I'm not so skilled. Anyway that didn't matter. I dreamed of how exciting it would be to paint in a foreign country with artists from that country. It would be the highlight of my trip!

I urged on. I was coming for the first time and I was going to paint directly on location. I wanted so much to capture the colors and feeling of Ireland while I was there, not simply from photos later. A little bit of rain wasn't going to stop me. After all, it wouldn't be the first time I set up in the rain. When water mixes with oil paints it causes some very interesting effects. Sometimes wonderful little surprises! And frankly, who cares if it would turn into a flop, I just wanted to do it. I wanted to paint Ireland in Ireland.

Despite all they were telling me and with stubborn determination, I continued my quest to find someone. One month before our flight I was completely unsuccessful.

"That's it!" I decided.

It was like putting my foot down. I wasn't going to give up so easily. My time was closing in and finding a painting partner became increasingly important. In desperation, I pulled out every Irish address I had contacted several months before. In a giant group email I stated my plight. I was looking for someone to paint with. Would anyone be willing to do so and if not, could they please direct me to someone who would.

Wow! It seemed to have worked like magic. I had several people return saying they would. It even seemed for awhile that a whole painting group would assemble to paint with me. A huge tingling rush spread through my body at the mere thought! Orchestrating that was simply too difficult and so it didn't happen. By the time I left, I had two separate proposal to paint. I was thrilled.

Only one of those actually happened. It was on the final days of our two week trip. A little gem in the end! Mat Grogan (www.matgrogan.com) a wonderful, shy master painter skilled in still life paintings joined me with his friend Dave Hayes (http://www.dom.ie/dhayes/dhayeshome.htm). I'll never forget it. We painted on a glorious day in full sun without wind or rain, in a lush Irish garden. I did paint by myself earlier in my trip, but it was nothing like painting with foreign artists. That was quite a thrill!

If you want something, don't give up. Keep plugging. Keep pushing until you succeed. In the end it will be worth all the effort you put into it and more.

(Photography by Michael McAllister)