Renewal from Gauguin's Color Palette

Yes, I am still here. You would hardly know it with as little as I've posted to this blog lately.

Life has been challengingly busy. The day job is demanding more of my time and more of my time has also been needed for helping my mom, who has recently moved to a nursing home.

Mom gave us a good scare with two trips to urgent care followed by two trips to the hospital in December and January. Luckily, she is now in a great facility with many levels of care. I call it her spa. Four weeks of physical therapy and a revised diet have made her into a new woman, bless her heart. She has graduated to the most independent level of residency and there is new radiance in her voice and spirit.

With Mom safely rehabilitated, and a couple free days from the office, Mr. Cha Cha and I stole away to Seattle this past weekend. The highlight of the weekend was a visit to the Seattle Art Museum for the only North American exhibit of "Gauguin and Polynesia: an Elusive Paradise."

I have been in love with Gauguin since my first high school art appreciation course. For a color lover like myself, his body of work is pure bliss.

His paintings for me are like seeing life through a perpetual sunset.

They make me crave luscious fruit.

They make me want to dance on the beach

and bath in pools of glorious light.

I want to use his color palette as inspiration for some projects. Pineapple yellow, mango, coral pink, violet, lavender, chartreuse, lime, tropical orange and cherry red.  Heaven!