A Late Morning In Berlin (Maryland)

Hotel Atlantic

I was born in Ohio and lived there for 18 years of my life, so I'm a native Buckeye. But for nearly as many years I lived in Maryland and in many ways feel as though I'm a native of that state as well. (Having Crabb as my last name certainly adds to that feeling!) While many people immediately think of Baltimore and Annapolis, or even Washington, DC when they think of Maryland, I think of all its beautiful, quaint little towns. There are many of them, all over the state, each one more charming than the next. And because of Maryland's very diversified terrain (mountains, coastal, flat lands, wetlands, rocky farmlands and rolling hills) there is a huge diversity in these tiny towns as well.

One such charming town is Berlin, Maryland. Two movies have been filmed there; "Tuck Everlasting" and more notably, "Runaway Bride." It's easy for me to think that more movies in the future could be filmed there as well. I recently had occasion to spend a couple of hours in the historic downtown area of Berlin and, of course, I had my camera with me!

The following interior shots were taken in this charming boutique!

Bustle. Don't you love it?

Of course, I'm all about crabs!

A little old mixed with the new!

The day would not have been complete had I not picked up some  souvenirs. Collaged earrings for me and some silver charms to use in my own collages!

For more about this charming town, click here: Visit Berlin

Retrospective Part 1

"Two Pears" - pastel - 4x5 - 1996

I'm currently visiting with my mother who lives 650 miles from me; so I don't get to see her often enough. Being the supportive mother that she is, she owns the world's largest collection of my artwork. This collection covers the gamut from my very beginning days until now. It's always great fun and a great education for me to review these pieces whenever I'm visiting and it has inspired me to create something of a retrospective exhibit within my blog.

I was 39 before I discovered that I had the ability to draw. I was never one to take art classes in high school and I really never doodled or dabbled in art. But, I've always been an art lover, a frequent visitor to art museums, and a collector. Finally, one day, I just had to see if I had the ability to create anything of my own.

My first foray into creating art was learning to draw with charcoal and pencils. Unfortunately, I don't think any of these early works are in existence. I was over zealous in cleaning out my studio one day and... whoops!

After spending time just honing my drawing skills, I stepped up to using color. Pastels. The little piece above is the very first pastel I ever did. When my new box of Nupastels arrived, I broke them in and practiced using them by creating pears. Ever since then, whenever I try something new, I almost always experiment by using pears as my subject. My art friends tease me about it being my favorite fruit. As far as I'm concerned, the shape and countours of pears allows you to fully experience the extent of the capabilities of a new medium.

Shortly after the pears, I painted the image below from a photo of my parents' back yard.

"In A Southern Garden" - pastel - 18x24 1997

This was probably my first attempt at flowers and you can see I had a tough time with them. I love their silliness. I became much better at flowers later on.