Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I'm working on a scene from Nova Scotia. It's not one of my best paintings. (That's putting it mildly.) I will finish it, though. I will learn something from the experience and I can always use the back of the paper to try something else:)

I finished a biography of Johnny Mercer yesterday. It's excellent. It's called Portrait of Johnny by Gene Lees. Mr. Lees doesn't particularly care for the music of my generation, but I won't hold that against him. I like the music of his generation:) Mr. Lees writes well. He's a lyricist, so he gives you an insider's point of view. He was also Johnny Mercer's friend. I'm caught in Johnny Mercer's spell. I ordered a copy of the documentary that Clint Eastwood did on Mercer. It is supposed to have a bonus disc with Mercer's watercolors on it.

I just started a book by James Lee Burke. Barnes and Noble was having a big sale. Jim and I took advantage of it. He's reading about Sherman's march to the sea.

I guess I'll pop over to your blogs to see what you guys have been up to.

7 comments:

Deb Harvey said...

Happy New Year,Candy!!!

I do the same thing...only with acrylics...I paint over the paintings I don't like so well. :-) Painting is just fun...no matter what happens!

Reading... I love to read, too. The biography of Johnny Mercer sounds great. I'm reading Julia Child's biography. I love her story, and the relationship she had with her husband. Very inspiring.

Have a fun New Year!!!

Autumn Leaves said...

A most joyous and beautiful 2010 is wished for you and your husband (and your dad! and your mom!), Candy. Glad to know you are painting. I'm having to scrap a piece I started on too. Watercolors aren't forgiving enough to allow me to correct the problems...sigh...

At any rate, I don't know who Johnny Mercer is (off the top of my head) but will look him up shortly. Hoping that today's holiday is one of rest and relaxation and fun for you and Jim.

Candy said...

Deb, I love the relationship between Julia and her husband, too. What an interesting life they led!

Allowing you to paint over a painting is a nice characteristic of acrylics:)

Sherry, I'll pass along your good wishes to everybody. Don't scrap your painting, just use the other side of the paper.

When you look up Johnny Mercer, you'll recognize a lot of his songs. He would have been 100 years old in 2009. He wrote lyrics for Charade, The Days of Wine and Roses, Moon River, The Summer Wind, Something's Gotta Give and I Remember You. He also wrote the lyrics for One for My Baby, which, you may remember, Bette Midler sang on Johnny Carson's next to the last Tonight Show.

He wrote That Old Black Magic, Accentuate the Positive and On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe and many more wonderful songs. He teamed up with composers like Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern and Henry Mancini.

He also could sing!

See if you can catch that Clint Eastwood documentary on him. They've been showing it on TCM. It's excellent. You will be amazed by this man!

Deb Harvey said...

We had a quiet evening at home too. My Life In France, is the book I'm reading. We watched Julie and Julia the other night...I love that movie!!!...and I love this book! I gave the cookbook to our youngest daughter for Christmas, and will buy one for myself soon! Julia was such a happy person...I hope to learn more about cooking now, thanks to her!

Candy said...

Deb, I loved that movie, too. Jim really liked it. He went with me even though he said he didn't want to go see a "chick flick". He was surprised. He now recommends it to everyone.

Your comment on how happy Julia was is right on. My Life in France is full of joy.

Mary Paquet said...

Candy, I just went back through older posts on my Art Adventures blog and found your very nice comment. Thank you for visiting and I will keep in touch with what you are doing. Good stuff!

Cindi said...

glad you continued on with this fun painting even tho you missed the dead line..

wanted to also let you know i ok'ed you for painting friends also.. so you should be recieving an email, if you dont let me know ok .. and ill check to see why..

guess you never signed on as a follower on my blog.. so i had to look thru all the posts.. LOL but good thing we have been chatty cause you popped right up.. have a good day..

take care...