Island Time

I have been painting underwater fishes and critters for a few years now, thanks to the reference material I get from my Nikonos V underwater camera when I go on diving trips. I have also done a few pieces from some of the islands I have been to on these trips. I am going to now paint a series of Island Time paintings just for a little variety.

On my trip to Harbour Island back in 1998, I had done a painting called Mamma Sarah's Straw Market.

On starting this new island series, I have decided to start out with another view of the straw market, which is located at the north end of the island at the foot of Government Dock. I will post it here and on my website on completion.

I also plan on doing paintings from Fiji, Grand Cayman Island, Nassau, Saint Maarten, and Bonaire, so watch for them to be posted here on my website.

The Great Channel 10 Auction

Today, Friday, 25 April, is the opening day of the Great Channel 10 Auction, which will run thru May 3.
Many great items are donated and auctioned off, with proceeds going to Channel 10/36 PBS stations. These are stations which have quality programming, such as Sesame Street, Nova, and many more.

I have donated 4 of my Ocean Colors Art prints to the auction in hopes to generate some bids and therefore, revenue for the stations.

I hope that everyone spends a little time watching the auction in the next 9 days, and that you find items you want to bid on............and bid high !!!!

My World Underwater.....a poem

This is a poem I had written a few years ago about my diving.

My World Underwater

As I drift weightlessly through the coral heads, my mind clears
Itself of the worries of my world.


Peace and quiet at last...with no sound to hear but my
Own breathing. My eyes are filled with all the rainbow colors
The ocean offers.


The prism of colors of the fish shine as they dart back and forth in as
Much wonder of me as I am of them.


Brilliant blue sea stars clings to coral.
Small puffs of sand rise in the water around a spotted moral eel poking
His head out of a crevice in the rocks to watch me as I pass by.


A Southern stingray floats gently like a hovering flying saucer along the
ocean

bottom.

Barely disturbing the sand with his fluttering wings as he looks for his
next meal.


The long, silent shadow of a Caribbean reef shark can be seen eerily in
the

distance

Slowly, methodically his tail sways through the water.


These are the pleasures my world underwater bring me
These are the memories I take home.







Bonnielynn Brankey (copyrighted 1997).

SUDS

Last Friday, I spoke on the phone with a delightful woman that I had met at Our World Underwater in Chicago in February. She and her "side-kick", JD, were recruiting donars/donations for a fairly new organization called SUDS ....Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba. SUDS is based at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington,DC. and is designed to help improve the lives of injured soldiers returning from Irag and Afghanistan. By training the soldiers in a challenging and rewarding activity it can help the rehab process and promote mobility. It also offers the soldiers a sport that they can enjoy all of their lives.

They are having a fundraising event called Operation Bottom Time (OBT), to be held in Key Largo the week of May 17-24, 2008. Having completed their confined water training at Walter Reed, OBT will be focused on the completion of their open water certifications and introducing them to the diving community.

As I mentioned his name above, JD, a disabled soldier, stopped by my art booth to look at my work and to chat a while.We bumped into each other about 3 different times in the hotel within the next 2 days and always ended up chatting for at least 20 minutes. What a neat guy and so easy to fall into a conversation with. He will be one of the soldiers taking his open water certification at OBT.

I wish all the soldiers much luck with their certifications. I'm sure they will all pass with flying colors and will find scuba to be a new and exciting experience in their lives. Since I personally can't be there to cheer them on, I hope that my art donation to the silent auction will help support this wonderful organization and I hope that someday I will be able to meet some of them on one of my dive trips to thank them personally for the honorable ways they have served our great country.

Beautiful weekend.........no painting done

Well, ...........Winter was hanging on for so long and we FINALLY had a beautiful Spring weekend here in Southeastern Wisconsin. Instead of painting, I was outdoors starting the cleanup of the yard. As best I could anyway. The ground in our backyard has become a part of the swamp that is next to our lot, so it was too spongy and wet to do any raking of branches and leaves. The front yard was a little less wet, so raking was easier. I also started to cut the dead leaves on some of my perennials that didn't get done last Fall.
This time of year is always like a new breathe for me. Its exciting to clean out the flowers gardens of winters debris and see the plants poking their little heads out, welcoming the warmer days of Spring.
As Scarlet OHare would say, "Tomorrow is another day"......so another day is when I will get back into my studio and paint again.

What's on the Easel??

Winter where I live just doesn't want to let go this year. I'm trying to brighten up these last dreary days by thinking about and painting the fishes that I see in the ocean on my dive trips.
I will have a new page up in the next few days on my website that will be called, "What's on the easel?"
It will be a sneak peek of art pieces in progress, so you can see what I'm doing. Hope you enjoy it.

Dots, Dots and more DOTS !!!!!

In June 2006, I was revisiting the beautiful Cayman Islands, not just for a fun in the sun diving vacation with the "Viking Women", but also for a chance to paint with the world -renowned artist, Ron Steven, aka Rogest.

On having seen our old friend Ron at Our World Underwater in Chicago, we were gently "persuaded" into signing up for his seven day Dive/Paint trip, being assured we would have a good time.

Our home for the week was Cobalt Coast Resort and Divetech dive shop in West Bay, Grand Cayman. From the time of our arrival until we departed, we were treated like royalty from the customer friendly staff. The owner of Cobalt graciously opened his 3rd story home up to us nine guests to use as a studio.

The cast of characters for the trip ranged from an elderly gentleman from Madison, Wi, with a witty sense of humor and much wisdom and knowledge to share and his gracious and sophisticated lady friend who managed to get a "zinger" in now and then; a couple from New Mexico who kept us in stitches with her infectious laugh and his dry sense of humor; a sweet and quiet lady from Denver who after a day or so showed us her alter ego; and my "Viking Women" friends....a passionate poet, a "princess" and a cautious banker.

After mornings of two wonderful dives off the Cayman walls, and a tasty lunch, we learned to paint with Rogest in his Australian aboriginal pointillist (dot) style with acrylic paints in bright Gaughin-like colors. This was exciting for me, since my own paintings are done with watercolor or oils and my murals with latex paint. Knowing how to paint was not a requirement and Rogest, with his boundless energy, made the learning process very easy and pleasant.

What started out as a daunting task to create a16"x20" canvas to actually look like a painting made solely of dots, ended in us creating nine wonderful paintings of underwater creatures! The laughter oozed out of the windows of that makeshift studio during our afternoon painting sessions. Wisecracks became the norm. After what seeming like painting millions of dots, we decided that we were going to need 'dot therapy', 'dotaholics anonymous', and hoped we wouldn't have post-dottum depression after going home !

In addition to the Rogest-style dot paintings, each of us contributed our palette knife "fish" on a 32"x40" canvas which turned into a huge abstract underwater scene that now hangs in the entry way of the resort.

The staff of the resort worked diligently to advertise an auction of our artwork that was held at Boatswain Turtle Farm to raise monies for environmental groups on the island. Rogest acted as auctioneer and sold all of our paintings for a profit of $1800.00. Our hearts and souls were poured into those little canvases and we were proud to donate the proceeds for a worthy cause. The environment needs all the hands it can get to help it along, if we want there to be something for future generations to enjoy, because "extinction is forever."

I came away from this dive trip with renewed friendships, a little part of each of my "new" friends to carry in my heart, a deeper appreciation for the environment, and a newfound energy for my own artwork .........which may just include a few DOTS !!