The Blues Legend Portrait Artist Helen Thomas
I'd be pleased to pick up additional followers and love to hear from anyone who just wants to say "Hi" or would like to comment on my work.
There is an interesting and informative website on the following link that I think you may like to check out...some very nice folks in Southern maryland, doing some really nice work promoting the arts in our area;
www.somdarts@somdarts.com
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2/25/10
Since I was on here, we've been dealt, and summarily dealt with, the worse snow fall/blizzard in recorded history for our area, and I've been staying very busy photographing several of the "junk" (albeit original) paintings which have just been lying about taking up space in the studio for years and listing them on www.amazon.com (I inserted the link so you can pop in there and purchase a dozen or so:-).
Actually, there are also several reproductions of my blues legend portraits listed there really cheap !
Today's my birthday, Sherry took me to lunch at Red Lobster, and she and Jan bought me some beautiful eyebrows. Next on my wish list ...permanent eye liner, YES!!! Got me some really sweet young'uns! They spoil me.
2/2/10
Haven't been on here lately, took awhile to get back on track after the holidays, and then had an exciting trip to plan.
I flew with my husband to L.A. last week, rented a car and drove to Vegas for the two days before the event on the 29th, the event for which we'd specifically made the trip, but needed a couple of days coushion between flights...and we both enjoy a sensible visit to the casinos, (a fact not pertinent to this topic).
The event was being held in a private home which was designed and built awhile back by Alan Goldman for the purpose of serving as venue to showcase performing "blues " people. Although, these days there are blues clubs all over everywhere, as you know, that's not always been the case.
This particular event was given to celebrate the lifetime achievements of David "Honeyboy" Edwards, who was in fact presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award on January 30, 2010...the day after the party.
Jeff dale and The South Woodlawners entertained magnificiently throughout the evening and the guest of honor very graciously played and sang quite a long setting for us. Sounding for all the world as strong as ever, a true master of the blues, Honeyboy Edwards is 94 years old...and one of the very few of the original living legends going back to the days of the likes of Robert Johnson and actually, these two were well acquainted.
I have installed a slide show on the second navigation button of this site containing
about fifty photos which were taken of this event.
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12/26/09
Well, Christmas has come and gone again, it was a very enjoyable time of preparation and visiting friends and being with family. Tom and I drove to Sherry's with our material offerings for the alter of the Christmas tree :-) and a couple of pies as our contribution to the usual fine dinner that Sherry provides for these special occasions.
We are fortunate in that we're able to live near two of our kids, Sherry and Jim.
We talked with Gary and his two sons on the phone, wasn't able to catch Jack though. If all went as planned, Jack spent the holiday with his three sons at (Cristopher's) family in law in Kansas.
The tempurature has stayed warm enough and we've had some nice warm rain so all that deep snow is virtually gone. Like it came for a white Christmas then ...poof! it's gone. Gotta love that!!!
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12/21/09
I've been working on the four new portraits...Billie Holiday, Howlin' Wolf, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton.Really slow progress in this early stage of establishing "landmarks" in dark values.
Spent a few hours out shopping...well, mostly sitting in traffic! It's pretty much one big parking lot out there with all the snow and so near to Christmas. But it's good to be out and about seeing the fantastic decorating that some folks do with their homes, seems even more spectacular this year.
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12/19/09
Oh yes, indeed we are having some very wintry weather these days. It started snowing Friday evening and isn't supposed to stop until sometime during the early morning hours Sunday. We have about eighteen or maybe twenty inches now.
Jim, Jan and the boys stopped by this afternoon for a couple of hours, not many folks out on the roads and I was more than a little concerned that they'd not make it up our drive and back out but they had no trouble at all.
We've just about finished our Christmas shopping, was out most of the day yesterday. Actually we dropped my car off to have new tires put on it, and we sorta bummed around in Toms truck shopping while that was being done.
My kitty spent last night under our house and so was trapped by over a foot of snow this morning, Tom shoveled out enough that he could collect her and took her back to the heated house that he'd built for her at the beginning of winter. Really a neat job it is, too. There is a series of ledges which she climbs to reach the entrance to her house. The whole thing is erected inside a sheltered area of the barn totally protected from the elements and the floor of the structure is heated by a coil of heat tape secured beneath the bedding. Now I ask you, is that a pampered kitty or what!!!
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12/07/09
I spent this day with Tom driving to his Drs. appointment at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, of course that's an entire day, lunch as always when we are in that area at the Broadway Dinner...and it is every bit as good as the bleached blonde guy on "The Food Channel" said it is!!!I can't think of his name...Bobby something, maybe...Do the "google" thing and you can read about it .
What I really wanted to tell you about though tonight is this neat place that we stop in occasionally in Welcome, Md. about ten miles from here. They were doing a fund raiser Sunday, a very worthy cause, but the evening of the third they had Karaoke w/ D.J. and hand/line dancing w/instructor. And the 4th they had just the Karaoke/DJ .
Then Saturday (5th)...HUNTER PALOOZA was there...and did you ever hear THE JEFF MILLER BAND? (And "The Martin Girl"Laura Francese was there Saturday night wooo hoooo). If you don't know these groups and personalities you can look at them on the internet.
They most always have very good live bands every week end there! Rather surprising given the location, really off the beaten path, but it's a pretty big place and most always a good crowd. Check all this out here in your spare time, a fun place!!!
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12/06/09
We had an entire day of snow fall yesterday, the ground was warm enough that there was very little accumulation, but it seems a bit more like winter time now.
I had a nice "chat" with our second borne son (Gary) earlier today. We were very happy to have him visit with us for a few days awhile back, we don't get to see him often any more. Anyway, he has two fantastic young teenage boys (Sean and Garrett) who are in fact, maturing most admirably into adulthood. I could relate to you all of their virtues and some pretty impressive awards, but suffice here to say that they are good and honorable kids, they excell in sports, music and scholastic endeavors, and we are all very proud of them both. Gary and his family live in Imperial, Mo. about eighty miles from where Tom and I both grew up...even though niether of us actually lived there since back in the `50's. Incidentally, Gary is the only one of our kids to put down permanent roots in that state.
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12/01/09
I worked a good part of this day moving from the studio into a spare room in my house, plenty of room for two floor easels and two table easels to accomodate the four portraits I've started, the first four in a very long series which I am doing for my own collection.
I intend to keep at least four "works in progress" at all times.
I had 20 more (ultra smooth portrait ) canvas's special ordered for me yesterday, & I should have them within two weeks, but these four will keep me busy till then since I only paint three days a week now. It's important that I use my time wisely, can't paint all the time, and I'm not accepting commissions until the end of this year at least, but I will continue painting through out the holiday season.
Tom and I just sorta bummed around yesterday...I make it a point to see that we do that at least once a week, like to make time to see the kids and maybe a couple of friends about once a week also, and that only leaves a couple of days for just the two of us relaxing at home, or out shopping if need be. Never been too much into shopping tho...
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11/29/09
Again today I spent about three hours painting... basically mixing palette for and then applying the ground on four canvas's so they'll be ready for the actual background application, then for the paint sketched images and finally the portraits.
That all done, I screened and sorted Christmas music so I can have my favorites playing
throughout this holiday season whatever else is going on. Then, Tom and I ran out for a bit more shopping...mostly we do gift cards (or cash for the grands) so that greatly simplifies our Christmas shopping .
Jim (our youngest son) and Kevan (Jim's younger son) just dropped by. Kevan has decided he'd much prefer that I, instead of his moms "stylist" cut his hair...of course I always have something good to eat on the stove or just out of the oven if I know when they're coming, so that may have a little something to do with it.
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11/28/09
I spent about three hours this afternoon totally isolated with my music and my paint brushes...my favorite place to be. Should have been finished with this SRV a month ago, but have sorta been coasting for awhile, also decided to completely rework a good part of the back ground, otherwise I'm pretty much done with it.
After I called it a day with the painting, Tom and I left the house and just drove around for awhile, checked out a place that has been recommended for hearing some good music and we weren't dissapointed...a place called Scotts Bar in Welcome, Md. about ten miles from La Plata. I'm bad about not getting exact names of places and bands...so I'll have to get back to this, too. I need to use the notebook that I always have with me. Also went out without my camera, actually we'd not planned to go there when we left the house. Had only planned to wander about some before stopping for dinner, (and mostly just wanted to enjoy the beautiful sunshine, haven't had much of that lately). But it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours , a very good evening!
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11/26/09
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Our daughter Sherry and her good husband had reservations for Tom an I to join them for a fine dinner at a really nice place out in
Calvert County, a huge old home which had been converted to an "up-scale country" kind of restaurant, sort of antique-y decor, fire place in each dining room...you get the picture. Really very nice. Right now the name escapes me, I'll fill that in another time.
I went out yesterday and bought a large number of "ultra Smooth Portrait" canvas's
so starting this coming week I should be finished with the commisioned SRV that I've been dawdling about, and begin the series of blues legend portraits that I'm planning to add to my personal collection. I'm totally excited about this, it's been awhile since I've been able to paint much for myelf.
P.S. for Carol; That was a very good mincemeat pie recipe, thank you.
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11/24/09
Haven't had a lot of time to paint these past couple of days. Like everyone else I've
been rushing around a bit more than usual as we move into the holiday season. Not that I'm going to be doing the whole big day of cooking and entertaining on Thursday.... (we're going out with our daughter Sherry and her husband for dinner) but there are certain events taking place during this time of the year that are worth breaking the routine for.It's a lovely time of the year!!!
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11/21/09
Just now I am working on another portrait of SRV...this is my last commissioned piece
for awhile and is in the final stages of being finished. I may post a photo of the finished work to this page in addition to uploading it to the "BLUES LEGEND PORTRAITS" page...for the remainder of this year I will be painting for my self, my own collection.
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10/27/09
Came home from three days in Az. with a side trip to Laughlin, Nv.
Actually I met Tom in Phoenix, he had gone a few days earlier to spend time with his family, but we both had things to do in northern Az that week.
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10/15/09
Our son Gary was with us for a few days, visiting from his home in St. Louis...saw him off from Reagan airport this afternoon. Has been awhile since we saw him, so very much enjoyed having him with us!!!
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9/20/09
I'm almost finished with the latest "commissioned" SRV portrait...Found a photo that I like better though that I plan to do for my own collection.
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9/1/09
Had a one on one painting lesson this morning...the lady already paints (sorta) but needed instructions on how to actually begin a painting without being told exactly every move to make. She was totally intimidated by a fresh canvas. A common thing when there's never been the need to actually paint unsupervised.
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8/31/09
Tom picked up Sherry and I at Reagan this morning...flew out of Austin really early. Had a great time there the evening before. We were down there to visit a couple of my sisters and the cousins, sort of a get together to commemorate a family event, but it was a very pleasant trip. I rented a car in Austin and we drove to Eagle Lake for three days but came back to Austin with enough time to check out some of the exciting stuff happening there.
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8/09/09
Been working on a large abstract, been considering putting together a collection of abstracts for my annual studio exhibit/artist reception this year...don't know if I'll have time to manage it though.
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Wish I had set up this page years ago...so many interesting places and events...but no time like the present.
Actually, the only reason that I'm able to use my time to start it now is that I have put
a (temporary) hold on accepting any new commissions for awhile. I have a lot of things coming up this fall, and trips to take, also I want to work at building onto my own collection of Blues Legends Portraits. So, I'm finishing up the commissions that I've already accepted and then I'll have to decide when I am ready to consider others...I'm pretty certain it won't be until after the new year though. And in the meantime, in the occasional free moments, I'll use the time to relax here and record various bits of info which will make for easy reference for myself if of little interest to anyone else ;-)