APALACHICOLA
Last year on a trip to the panhandle of Florida we decided to stop overnight in the town of Apalachicola.  Apalachicola is a lovely little city trying very hard to make a comeback and doing a pretty good job of it.  While in Apalachicola one can visit charming antique shops which carry everything from buoys to fishing nets, to vintage clothing and furniture.  There are several wonderful old hotels  in which one can spend a cozy night.  Apalachicola boast lovely Victorian homes many of which are bed and breakfasts.  There is an old building with beautiful brick interior walls which has been converted into a candy shop where one can buy the most delicious home made candies and ice cream. But our favorite thing to do while in Apalachicola was to sit in the riverside restaurants and eat oysters.  Apalachicola is know for its oysters and one can get every kind of oyster imaginable.  There are fried oysters, oysters on the half shell, oyster poor boys.  You name it and you can get it there. This  painting was done from a photograph that I took, you guessed it, while sitting in a riverside restaurant eating oysters.  If you are visiting Florida, consider spending a quiet fun day in Apalachicola.  OYSTERS ANYONE?
Phillis Holland

UK Bound

I will be leaving for England next week for two weeks with my two sisters. This will be our first "real" vacation together and we are all very excited. We will be going to Haworth, in northern England first, to stay with a friend for a week. They call that area Bronte county.  It is known for its moors, castles, Hadrian's Wall and the famous WWII week-end!! Hopefully we will get to Edinburgh while we are there.

When we are in London we plan on seeing all of the sights. We even have tickets for the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. If anyone has any suggestions about sights to see, places to go or places to eat, I would love to hear them.
This is a painting I started in group yesterday and hope to finish tomorrow. It will be drying while I am gone.

South Carolina Retreat

Denette, Carmen, Mary Jo, Kathy, Cindy

Last week half of the Pieces of 8 went to visit Mary Jo (above, center) in South Carolina. She appreciates artists and she is a collector. It took about five minutes to feel we had known her all our life, and we were off to have a good time!

Kathy in a typical pose, closing in on some poppies at Brookgreen Gardens

Denette on Surfside Beach

Kathy and Cindy hard at work on the front porch

We went to the beach, listened to Beach Music, went to Fat Harold's, home of the famous Carolina shagging (that's a dance), visited gardens and plantations, and ate Mary Jo's shrimp and grits for breakfast. I am still dreaming of those shrimp and grits...she bought the shrimp right off the shrimp boats. Would you believe some restaurants in the area get shrimp from Asia? "Buy local!" is the resulting outcry.

posted by Carmen

There is something about...

There is something about roosters. I don't know what it is that captivates us so. Is it their colorful feathers, their strut or their attitude? Whatever it is, there is not an artist I know that can resist painting a rooster at least once.  This fine specimen was strutting around the parking lot at a small shopping area in The Keys. He was oblivious to all traffic, motorized or pedestrian. He really was the cock of the walk.

Another Snail Project

When I hunt snails, I wave a scarf in front of me to ward off the mosquitoes. I got it into my head to make myself some 22 inch square scarves with actual snails on them for just that purpose. I drew up four designs in Illustrator. This is one of them.

Then I formatted it for Spoonflower and uploaded the designs. Less than a week later the fabric arrived. All I had to do was cut them out and stitch up the edges. Here's how they turned out.

I'm ready for my next snail hunt. The snails become active around late May and June and the little ones start hatching and climbing up the trees. If you want to see Liguus Tree Snails for yourself, just head to Big Cypress or the Everglades.

Homage to the Ladies and Literature of the 50's

Well as usual brainstorming for a direction to go for a piece in black and white took many turns before it finally settled on this poor unsuspecting mannequin. I was going to be a good girl but those darn, oh so intriguing oh so tempting, oh so wonderful Pulp Fiction covers just kept popping into my head. I knew it was useless to fight it so I just decided that everyone should get a little peek at the more Noir side of the 50's.
Here is a distant view of her in all her glory, full of thoughts, words and deed.

If you get really close you can see what enticed men and boys to ask the man in the "paper store" what he had behind the counter. I am sure that outside of Massachusetts these magazines were on the shelves along with Readers Digest and Popular Mechanics!!

Tangled Webs Are Woven, 12 x 16 by Cindy Michaud

"Oh what a tangled web we weave..."

Acrylic and graphite on board, colored pencil

How many of us know the rest of the quote?

In naming my newest piece in the Tree Series this sentence came to mind as

I carefully worked on the tiniest of the branches which entertwined

one with the other.

When I asked for my husband's input on title suggestions a version

of this quote came to his mind as well.

So I officially named the piece:

"Tangled Webs Are Woven"

It signals to me that (intentionally or not) our lives are

so caught up in the lives of those around us that we tend to

get woven into their concerns and needs and sometimes it is hard to know

exactly where one branch starts and another picks up.

But as I wrote the title I figured I'd better double check on the quote that inspired it.

And it was not Mr. Shakespeare!

The entire quote goes:

"Oh the tangled webs we weave

When first we practice to deceive."

and it is attributed to

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

I'm not sure these trees had any intention of practicing deception but I am going

to stick with the title as it captures the many thoughts I had while working on it.

Here's hoping that the branches of your life are all tangled up with

ones that add joy and meaning to your life.

 Framed in a black floater