C1SpdxjFUj4dpixZDJXd3cGEL.jpg' alt='Suddenly Susan' title='Suddenly Susan' />How I Learned to Paint. Im often asked how I learned to paint. When I first moved to Marthas Vineyard, Norman Rockwell was alive and well and living in his beloved Stockbridge, Massachusetts home. It occurred to me that I should probably try and go see him I could picture myself walking up his driveway to shake his hand so clearly that it still seems it might have really happened. The sensibilities behind his art were so wonderful, and exactly how I felt. His paintings made me fall in love with his understanding and view of the human heart. But of course, I never went there, I didnt want to bother him. Joe and I have now been to Stockbridge many times, have visited his museum and studio I picked this stick up from the front yard of his studio to save. One of my prized possessions. My Norman Rockwell Stick. I photographed it where it lives, on my art table, hopefully osmosing genius out into my studio in my House of Creativity like gamma rays. The paper its sitting on is one of the throw away scraps I use to check colors on my brush and test my pen to make sure it isnt going to drop a clump of ink on the watercolor Im working on. I like to think Norman Rockwell had one of these too. So I thought today, I might give you a tour of my watercolor world. And you dont have to come all the way to Marthas Vineyard to see it, Im only as far away as your computer Above, is a photo I took when I was working on the page I did to honor Tasha Tudor  this sweet corgi hopefully like one of hers and one of her lovely quotes  I did for my December 2. Id never painted a corgi before, but now I would like to stop everything and ONLY paint corgis, he was so fun to do his colors are beautiful, but my favorite is his nose Have you noticed that Corgis are like little tea tablesThey have such wide flat backs, they could be like a hassock or an end table. You could put a tray on him. After I finish doing a page for a book or calendar, it gets scanned into the computer, which allows me future access to it another computer miracle, and the original art goes into these acid free boxes, and then into this huge old bank safe Joe found for me. All the original pages for my books, along with everything Ive ever painted, is stored here. The problem is, we are going to need another one. You know I only started doing watercolors just after I turned thirty Its true. I never knew I had that inside me. Even though I paint almost every day now, its still a surprise to come into a whole room dedicated to the messes I make and to see my art table covered with paintboxes and brushes and know theyre mine. I think its because I didnt grow up with them. I always loved to make things. I especially loved to sew a room filled with needles, thread, fabric and embroidery hoops would make more sense to me than the still surprising sight of brushes and paintThe latest in astrological trends by Susan Miller, comprehensive, complete, intelligent, and accurate. Sound Horizon Roman Rar. Your life in 3D culture, style, romance, money, real estate. Susan Berger is an experienced family therapist and psychotherapist who provides Information and support for adults involved in affairs. She has offices in San. Now I design my own fabric and mix it up, sewing and drawing to make things like the dishtowel on the left. Ive always mixed up my hobbies. I fell in love with the art of cooking in my twenties I loved giving dinner parties, loved surprising people with banana cream pies and pots of bean soup. After I started painting my girlfriend suggested I combine my watercolors with my recipes to make a cookbook. I didnt think I could write a book, but I knew that even if it was never published, I would still have the pages to give away for some nice Christmas presentsSo I decided I would try. And it all turned into a very surprising career. Sometimes I walk into my studio early in the morning, before the sun has come upall quiet, birds singing in the rhododendren outside the window, or in the winter, when I paint to the hum of the furnace, with Girl Kitty and Jack on their pillows keeping me company, and a blank piece of paper in front of me, waiting for my brush and that first drop of color, and think about how this all came about. This was the very first painting I ever did. It was a plant sitting on my kitchen table I filled a little pot with water, squeezed some watercolors from tubes into a plastic dish watercolors Id bought with a 3. I sharpened a pencil, sat down in front of this geranium and started drawing. Suddenly Susan' title='Suddenly Susan' />I had no idea what I was doing. I just looked at the plant and tried to put what I saw on the paper. Im often asked how I learned to paint. When I first moved to Marthas Vineyard, Norman Rockwell was alive and well and living in his beloved Stockbridge. Susan Taber Gidley was my maternal grandmother. I was looking at your site because a friend of mine is trying to find red check rim bistro plates made in France and. Everyone was shocked that it looked like a geranium I was shocked  It was a geranium This was one of those life changing moments that are sometimes only visible in the rear view mirror. One of the reasons I want to encourage people to just try it when it comes to watercolor or any home art, cooking, sewing, quilting, knitting, scrapbooking, gardening  is because Im sure that this must have been inside me my whole life, and I had no idea. I doodled just like anyone else, random squiggles drawings of stick people not the slightest inclination that there could be more. If this ability could be hiding inside me, it might be inside you. Trying has always been the most important word I know. Nothing ventured, as they say so truly, nothing gained. My mother put this crayon drawing in my baby book. I was a star to her no matter what I drew. Would you have looked at this crayon drawing and thought you should start saving to send the child to art school No. More likely you would wonder what was going on with her right brain Or maybe its her left, but somethingSuddenly Susan EpisodesI should get it analyzedOver the years, I found out that what really matters is practice In my 7th grade art class, we spent the entire semester drawing our thumbs Seriously, thats what we did, left thumb stuck up in front of me, pencil in right hand the teacher went over and over it, showing us how to really look at things, the curve, the edge, the shadows, the lines. I got an A in that class, but I thought everyone did, it was an electiveAnd I never took another art class. I can still draw a good thumb if I want to. Thats what I mean about practice. Suddenly Susan Kathy Griffin' title='Suddenly Susan Kathy Griffin' />If you look at the art in my first book, Heart of the Home, and compare it to later work, like my newest calendar or the Autumn Book, you can see what a big help practice can be. Ive always painted the things around me. Before I moved to Marthas Vineyard and began to write books, I did little scenes of flower pots, baskets with apples, bowls of fruit, quilts, straw hats, my old stove, and my kitty I hung them all over my kitchen, called them Kitchen Art, and gave them away as Christmas presents. Soon my friends were asking to buy them, giving me confidence to do more and more. My first painting sold to the outside world in a gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills I didnt have the nerve to take my art there myself, a girlfriend did it for me. I was jumping up and down happy about this even the smallest successes build confidence which is just a huge help no matter what you do, just believing you can after that I began to have local art shows in my little town in California. I took Polaroids of the paintings as I did them, which is a good thing, because the paintings themselves are almost all gone. Suddenly Susan The Finale' title='Suddenly Susan The Finale' />Best Compilation People Who Laughed at TRUMP. President FUNNY Duration 533. Indicrat 2,144,354 views. I still have a few of my favorites. These framed apples came with me from California to Marthas Vineyard and hang in my kitchen now. I still love using the things around me as my subjects, although you might not know it to look at this probably a little hard to believe that these birds might be around me. BTW, see that real feather lying on the paperGladys Taber Fan Club Susan Branch Blog. Gladys Taberots of you have noticed that some of the most wonderful quotes I put in my books and calendars are attributed to Gladys Taber. Ive been asked many times who she is and how to find out more about her. I think I learned everything I needed to know about her when I read this ladys Taber was born in 1. Stillmeadow and Still Cove books. She loved everything I love, which is why I love her Through her eyes, we experience the passing seasons from her 1. Connecticut farmhouse share in her passion for animals, gardening, cooking, and homemaking. Her books are filled with practical advice and her common sense view of the way things are. She also wrote the Diary of Domesticity column for the Ladys Home Journal in the late 1. Butternut Wisdom for Family Circle through the 1. Gladys Taber from their mothers or grandmothers. Others discover her by accident. I found her waiting for me on a shelf of old books left behind by the previous owner of the first little house I bought on Marthas Vineyard. The book was Best of Stillmeadow, where I read the words April in New England is like first love. Gladys. I feel like I just missed her, she died on Cape Cod at 8. I moved to the island began collecting her books finding them almost lit up, like little torches in dark and dusty used bookstores. As soon as I found out about it, I joined the Friends of Gladys Taber Fan Club. For years I have received their wonderful snail mail newsletter that still thrills my heart every time I see it in my mailbox. Its real mail, the kind you save and read with a cup of tea. Afterward, you feel the way you do when you open all the doors and windows on the first spring day after a long cold winterve also corresponded with some of Gladys other Friends and without really knowing them, its easy to feel an instant connection between kindred spirits because of our mutual admiration for Gladys Taber, which extends right out to each other. June day in 1. 99. Editor in Chief Emeritus of the Friends of Gladys Taber Fan Club, Gilbertine Gilly Moore, stopped by my house on Marthas Vineyard to say hello. Wed been pen pals for years, but this was our first in person meeting. We visited in the backyard, under the rose arbor she was like a link to the past for me. She gave me the black and white photos you see at the top of this page she took them when she visited Gladys in 1. Gilly and I wrote to each other until her death in 2. The Friends of Gladys Taber Newsletter. They have what they call a minimal web site due to everything being volunteer, having no funds particularly, just a lot of heart, but you can go there www. Friends. Of. Gladys. Taber. org to request membership information they would love more people to know about Gladys Taber. So if this seems like your cup of tea, its only 2. March, June, September, and December a mere pittance for the wonderful job they do of carrying on the true tradition of what Gladys Taber was about. Still meadow, Gladyss wonderful 1. Connecticut countryside. If you want to know more about Gladys, here is her page at Wikipedia. GladysTaber. In 2. I was honored to visit Stillmeadow and speak to the Friends of Gladys Taber group. I wrote afterwards that was printed in their Newsletter. To join Joe and I on our wonderful tour of Stillmeadow, click HEREArt and Content for Susanbranch. Please ask before using.