Mail Art Project,A great way to offer cheer,My Web site is back!!, Savory Cheesecake

Lighthouse St Marks Wildlife Preserve
4x6 inches
gouache on acid free mat
mounted to 5x7 for easy framing

40.00
2.00 shipping

Yippee!! My new computer guru came out and fixed my computer and software, so I have started to update my web site again. I'm sooo happy!!!! Skipping around my studio!!

For anyone with computer needs in the Alachua County Florida area, His name is Robert Rahn HERE He is a genius!! He came out to my house and had everything done in no time. He gets my highest recommendation. Everyone else said it could not be fixed. He also designs web sites and does network consulting.




Tree Near the Lake
8x10 inches
oil on panel

This was one of the Wekiva paintings. When I got it home I was unhappy with it and almost put it in the sale bin. I had second thoughts and decided to do some revision. I'm pleased with it now. I will often find solutions to plein air screw-ups back in the studio.



Check out the Mail Art Project HERE I think she must be thrilled to go to the mail box and receive all of this art for her project. A very cool idea. I sent a piece for this project and Elizabeth posted it on her site. I was delighted.


As you probably know if you read my blog regularly, I do a lot of Mail art and I love sending it out to various friends and projects. I just love the concept of receiving original art through the mail. Many of you know that I made 40 pieces of mail art and sent them one a day for Lent this year. It gave me great pleasure to do this for friends and patrons in honor of God, during the Easter Holiday season. I try to do a couple of mail art projects each year during holidays to bring cheer and surprise fun for people.


I was thinking I might do a project for a nursing home for the elderly this year. I'm sure they would enjoy getting a nice original miniature as a surprise from a stranger. When you think about how much art lifts our spirits, it's little enough of a sacrifice, with huge rewards for the recipient. I'm thinking that ladies in nursing homes might enjoy birds or flowers as themes. I've been wanting to practice painting some birds, so this sounds like a good little project for me this summer.


I often wish there were more hours in the day. I swear I come up with an idea a minute. It's impossible to implement all of them. I've never understood how painters can have painter's block. It would be impossible for me not to have dozens of ideas every single day. Perhaps it's the ADD, I'm not sure.


I definitely need an assistant. My agent is great but she is not my assistant. I need somebody to hang around my studio one day a week, cleaning up, delivering paintings, gessoing panels, packing my equipment for paint outs, ordering supplies, recording inventory and so forth. One of my pet peeves is having to scrape and clean my palette. Isn't that ridiculous? I just hate it. I would love to have someone do that for me. I have had assistants over the years but they never last and are unreliable. That's because they were kids in high school and college. I think I need to find someone older, perhaps my age. I wonder if any of my students would want to trade that for free lessons? If any of you have studio assistants please comment and tell me how it is working for you. I recently talked to an artist who has two assistants. She swears it is worth the money invested. She says her production time has doubled and her sales too. I keep wondering about it.

Today's Recipe

Baked Savory Cheesecake

1/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup plus 3 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 onion, chopped
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 pound bleu cheese
28 ounces cream cheese (room temp)
4 eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 pound bacon, cooked & crumbled
Tabasco or hot sauce to taste
pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 300 degrees and place rack in center. Butter an 8" cake pan (not spring form). Line bottom with parchment or wax paper and butter paper. Mix bread crumbs with Parmesan and coat pan with mixture.

Saute onion in butter. Put the bleu cheese, cream cheese, eggs and cream in a mixer long enough to just blend. Add onion, bacon, tabasco, and pepper.Mix just long enough to blend. Scrape into prepared pan. Place pan into a roasting pan with hot water 1/2 way up sides. Bake 1 hour and 40 minutes, adding water to the roasting pan if necessary.

Turn off oven, close door and wait 1 hour. Remove from oven and let sit until cool (do not refrigerate). When cake has cooled, invert on plate, remove paper and invert onto a serving plate.

Can be refrigerated, tightly wrapped, up to a week. Also freezes very well.

Serve with crackers.