the smell of summer in the house full of dog

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Originally uploaded by claudia dose.

We are house sitting, with dog and garden. It is quite something getting used to always having a dog on your side. I understand that he must miss his owners, but he has the habit of sticking his nose at you or brush against you when he walks past, just to show you his extra love.
He is also quite showy, so I was trying to sketch him, but not a real good model he moves a lot, makes you extra quick or else.

The garden also gives plenty of motives, burned out from the sun yellow leaved cactuses, cast iron ornamental garden chairs. From the windows upstairs I get beautiful views of typical californian suburban scene and palms swinging in the wind and more cactuses in neighbors front yards. The streets are lined with magnolia trees and we have bowls and bowls of magnolias in all sorts of stages, fresh white butts that are ready to open, yellow pedals that did not open well and wide open bright white huge flowers. The smell is penetrating thru the dog smell and fills the house with summer. I cant get enough of them.

I am reading “writing down the bones” by Natalie Goldberg, and love how she finds parallels between writing and meditation, and turns our creativity into a spiritual quest while at the same time opening up to the world and taking our live in fully with our senses, in order to be able to put it on paper, raw and without our ego censoring it. Finding that moment where it flows, paintbrush and hand and the object I am painting is one. It makes me want to look deeper and paint deeper, listenand touch things and write more. I am usually a bit awkward writing, not just because it is my second language but because I am very much a private person, but I feel it is giving some clarity to my art, I get down to the “bones” of it.