August Heat, Mother Road Art, and a Friday Night Worth Marking

Looks like August 2026 is going into the record books as a very hot one. The thermometer topped 100 more times than we expected or wanted. Even so, the studio, the garden, and the road kept moving.

Last night I rolled in from Santa Fe with 65 beautiful paintings that will hang for the Route 66 Mother Road art show. Tuesday I’ll intake a couple dozen more. These works were all created along the Mother Road during the 100-year celebration of its creation. They are excellent, and they deserve a full room and a full evening.

Please join us Friday, September 4, from 5–9. Reception and awards begin around 5 p.m. Come enjoy, celebrate, and see this beautiful group of work. I’ll be in Studio D at Arts in the Sunset. Stop by and let me know you received this newsletter.

This month I also had a great time painting a beautiful ballerina and continuing my studies with the incredible Mandy Theice, working in the manner of the old masters. That kind of slow, careful looking is a good counterweight to a hundred-degree August.

On the gardening side, I’m planting the fall garden while I cut okra and harvest many varieties of peppers. The ducks are doing well—they’re big ducks now—and they’re learning the fine skill of eating the grasshoppers that dare to dine on the garden.

Granddaughter finished her horse-show series with the big 5-horse-show group and is now headlong into volleyball and cheerleading. I’m already looking forward to all the grands on the basketball court.

Most Saturdays you can still find me teaching some talented young ladies in my studio at Arts in the Sunset. That continues. This Friday, though, is the show: 5–9, reception and awards around 5, Studio D.

Mark the calendar. Come see the work. Tell me you got this.