Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism is a painting movement in which artists typically applied paint rapidly and with force to their huge canvases in an effort to show feelings and emotions, painting gesturally, non-geometrically, sometimes applying paint with large brushes, sometimes dripping or even throwing it onto canvas. The expressive method of painting was often considered as important as the painting itself.

A few notable famous Abstract Expressionist paintings:
Hans Hofmann's Rising Sun
Willem de Kooning's Night
Cy Twombly's Untitled 1953
And of course Jackson Pollocks Painting (Silver over Black, White, Yellow, and Red

The above paintings can be found in museums around the world. Now we would like to introduce the world to another budding abstract expressionist. Below are three works we are trying to sell at auction.

First is titled Zebra in Spring Blossoms

The second is titled Blue Clouds during Moonlight Eclipse

And the third and final installment in the series is titled Waking Moments of Dizzy Cookie Monster


If all goes well the above paintings will be on display at Sothebys Auction House starting in November. However if you are interested in owning one of the works, please email us and we will take any reasonable offer.

About the artist:
Charlotte Early Ronan born December 7th 2005 has been painting for over 12 months. She enjoys horses, dogs, and Sunshine on the playground. She finds solace in her art and has amazing technique in expressionism. Her medium of choice is non-toxic Crayola finger paint. She is currently working on her next series of painting using a mixed medium format.

A few pictures of the artist at work. Note the passion in her expressive technique. The artist truly becomes one with her art, crossing the barrier of the art world by throwing herself into her painting and becoming one with her medium. Again the method of painting is what sets her work apart from amateure artits.

H O T

HOT! Saturday was only 96 degrees, but it felt like 105. In the morning dad followed his standard ritual of going to the dump and the post office. By 10am he was finished his "chores" (the ones that were inside chores) and then decided to go for a walk with mom and Charlotte to the farmers market in town. Charlotte grabbed moms hand and we strolled to the market. We meandered around, bought some fresh cukes and tomatos. As the sun continued to beat down on us we called it a day. Both of us sweating in the ridiculous humidity. Charlotte didn't even want to walk home. When we arrived home we closed the blinds, cranked on the AC and did our best to keep Charlotte occupied.


Dad tried to build a fort out of a sheet but it was a little too low. Charlotte didnt seem to mind but the excitement of that idea only lasted a few minutes. Then he got the inflatable air mattress out that they used camping and blew it up in the living room. This became part trampoline, part bed, part wrestling ring, and part gymnastics mat. SUCCESS!!! Charlotte rolled. She bounced. She danced. She flipped. She jumped. She had a blast and more importantly didn't realize she was stuck inside hiding from the baking heat outside.

After her nap we decided enough was enough and headed out to civilization. We rode in our air conditioned car to the safety of air conditioned Barnes and Noble. Charlotte played in the children section with the Thomas the Train table. Surely it was loaded with all of the Thomas Trains that were covered in lead paint, but she didn't mind. She played and ran around having a ball. Mom and dad had Starbucks iced coffees and enjoyed meandering around the store looking at books and enjoying the air conditioning.


The important thing is we survived the hottest day of the year. The forecast for today is much of the same. It will be interesting to see how creative we can be to keep Charlotte occupied for the 2nd day in a row. Right now we have resorted to turning on the movie Happy Feet for her. That should buy us a couple of hours.

Daddy Daughter Dinner

To my daughter Charlotte,

Thank you for going alone to dinner with your father. Mom had last minute plans to go out with Kelly, and frankly, she could use a night out. Instead of us just ordering in pizza, we thought it would be nice to spend some quality time alone together. Dinner wasn't elaborate, just fish and chips for dad and a hotdog and fries for you at Putnams. I like it there because they also think you are adorable and because it was where you first called me Da-Da. On the way we listened to Jack Johnson and Ben Harpers rendition of With My Own Two Hands. We had the stereo turned up really loud and we sang along. I love that song because it reminds me of you and in my head its our theme song. I hope you grow to like it as much as much as I do.

Mom helped us out by packing a bag with treats and wipes and your other stuff in it while I got you dressed and ready. The first dress I put you in was so incredibly small and short. I cant believe how fast you are growing on me. There was no way I was about to let you out of the house with a dress THAT short. Remember this when you are 13. I am sure we will end up having fights about what is appropriate and not. You are my little girl and always will be, no matter how old you are.

You were spectacular at dinner. We colored in the pictures of Elmo and Nemo and Cookie Monster that I drew on the place mat. We counted numbers and we practiced our colors by nameing off the colors of the crayons. I know its tough for kids to not only remember the name of the object, but also to use an adjective to describe said object. Thats my theory and I am sticking with it. You say the word Yellow perfectly. It took me until I was 6 to say the word correctly.

Once we got home you wandered the house for a little while asking for Momma. You make it very clear how much you love her. And the dogs for that matter because as we pulled into the driveway you kept saying Abi Abi Abi. As usual Abigial and Oliver were at the door to greet you when we returned.

Soon after, we started our nightly bedtime ritual of bath, brushing of your teeth, getting you into your pj's, and then sitting on dads lap with a bottle. I love that you sit with me and let me pat your head while I read to you. Tonight you let me read Daddy Hugs to you and I Went Walking. I was happy because for the past two weeks you wanted to read nothing but If You Give A Pig A Party. I like the book but I can only read it so many times. And while we are on the subject, you have made me watch the beginning of Finding Nemo 100 times in the past week. I have no idea how it ends and hope one of these days you will sit with me to watch the whole movie.

Tonight you went to bed like an angel. You gave me your bottle when you were done drinking the milk and kept asking me to move the butterfly mobile. I picked you up out of the crib and let you touch the butterfly. Your whole face lit up and you were so excited to finally touch it. I gave you a giant hug and an extra kiss for mom then put you down in your crib. You said Night Night and I closed the door behind me.

I hope you have a peacefull night.

Love,
Dada

ps. We have also been practicing making our faces. Sad, Angry, Silly, and of course working on our million dollar smile. Check out the pictures.
SILLY
ANGRY
SAD
SMILE


You and I making silly faces before we went to dinner together:




Mom and Kelly before girls night out at Mangia.

Slideshow

Yes, lots and lots of pictures of Martha's Vineyard. Please note the pictures of dad shirtless on the beach have been doctored by a hacker. He really isn't that white or out of shape. Someone hacked into his pictures and Photoshopped them to make him look bad. I will find you some day evil hacker picture wrecker.

Out of the mouths of babes

"ACE HOE" Charlotte blurts during our car ride home from Connecticut.
Dad: "She didn't just say that did she?"
Mom: "I think she was talking to you."
Dad: "Very nice dear. I told you not to use those words around her."
Mom laughing: "She is calling it as she sees it."
We quickly diverted Charlottes attention by singing Happy Birthday in the car (which is now one of her favorite songs, along with Row Your Boat and Ring Around the Rosie). We didn't think much more of the conversation until later in the evening after dinner.

Dad decided to take the family for some ice cream. We got it to go and when we returned home, we all sat down at the table to enjoy a Sunday on a Sunday. Charlotte had her own cup of black raspberry ice cream that she was furiously shoveling into her face.

"Yummmy" She said.
"You like the ice cream Charlotte? Can you say ice cream?"
"ICE HOE" she said intently then continued to shovel in the ice cream.
Mom and dad both look at each other. She wasn't saying "ACE HOE" earlier, she was saying ICE HOE which is ICE CREAM in Charlotte language. Thank God, dad was getting a complex thinking he was being called something else.

Charlotte's vocabulary has really grown over the past few weeks. There are still a lot of words that we can't understand, but we do our best to decipher what she is saying. Lately she has been on a kick saying "no way". Charlotte do you like to eat spiders, "NO WAY" she replies. Too funny.

Its amazing how you cross such a big milestone once your child is able to communicate with you.

Is that a baby in your pants?

Kids weekend number four. I think its kids weekend number 4? Maybe its three but it feels like it should be four. As you all know, last year, Shelby and her friends got together at Old Orchard Beach Maine for a weekend of sun and fun. This year we decided to go camping. The original idea was to go camping at Lake George New York. Then we quickly realized we all have children, young children, and to our knowledge none of them have ever experienced camping before. Never slept in a tent and never slept outside in the great wild. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to go camping in the wild quite yet. So instead, Janet and Chris opened up Camp Buglione for us in the deep woods of Shelton Connecticut.

We all arrived Friday night to pitch our tents and get ready for a weekend of sleeping outside. The backyard (campground) was nice. There were plenty of level spots but there was not the water and electric hookups that had been promised in the brochure. Also missing were the horseshoe pits and stocked fishing pond, but I digress. The kids played the parents played, then it was time for bed. We had unpacked Charlottes pack-n-play in our tent and got it nice and cozy for her. We bathed her, put her in her pj's, then off to bed in the tent like the other kids. However, the second she was placed in her pack-n-play she screamed. And cried. And screamed even louder. She wanted NOTHING to do with the tent and wanted even less to do with sleeping outside. After a solid 40 minutes of trying to read to her, console her, let her run around in the tent, on the air mattress, we were done. We hauled out her stuff and moved her into the house into Emma's room where she would sleep the rest of the weekend. Thank you Emma for giving up your room for Charlotte. She isnt quite ready for the great outdoors yet.

Saturday the kids played out back on the campground jungle gym. Everyone got along swell. Dave and I remarked how fast the day went by as watching the children was effortless. They played baseball (watch out big papi):
They climbed the walls.


Colin even pumped gas for Charlotte.


Then it went downhill quickly. Dave decided to try and swing with his children on the swing set that is designed for kids. Not a great idea. Then he proceeded to break Colins T-Ball set. Here is a shot of Colin bringing Dave the broken piece, asking what happened. Daves answer? Are you sure its broken Colin? I think this is just a left over piece.


Then began the car races down the hill. Despite the 4 car pile up there were no major injuries (although Izzy did get two splinters in an unrelated barefoot on the deck incident).


Luckily there were plenty of cupcakes for the kids and nothing is better than a long day of playing in the sun then topping it off with some sugar.


Surprisingly eventually they all went to sleep. Soon after the children were asleep Ryan began making his favorite cocktails. Pink passion fruit mojitos. Despite us telling him he was a girl, he kept drinking them. Oh, and you can see by the picture of Amy, the other girls loved them too.




Speaking of girls....the final day we had to do a picture of the kids on the couch. Every year a different kid doesnt want to be in the picture and cries profoundly. This year, I wonder who that kid was?

A weeks worth of posts in one!

To put this post in perspective, we came back from vacation with 769 pictures on our camera. So how to cram everything into one post is going to be tough (and we will not subject you to all the pictures). So here goes.

Ok, this is the revised edition of what we did since the days sort of blend together (the sign of a great vacation). We went to the beach 3 times. One day was windy, two days were not. One day was cold. The other two were not. One year made a huge difference with the kids. Instead of crawling on a blanket eating fists full of sand, Charlotte was running and playing in the sand and surf. It took her a couple of days to lose her fear of the surf, but she did. The water was very warm (in the upper 60's). Dad tried flying his giant butterfly kite (twice) but the wind was a little too strong and it kept crashing down. Dad fed the seagulls with Charlotte (she loves birds). On two seperate occasions those same rats with wings swooped down and stole sandwiches out of both dads hand and moms hand. Damn Seagulls we had better not catch rabies.

Mom and dad went boogie boarding. Sort of. Mom and dad were both playing on a boogie board and a giant rogue wave from nowhere crashed over their heads pulling them both under. Mom lost her sunglasses in the incident and the girls almost fell out of her bathing suit which was quickly filled with sand as waves continued to pummel her laying on the beach trying to get up. We made quite the spectacle of ourselfs and shortly after left the beach exhausted.

The days at the beach were spent with all of us there in the morning and a fairly empty beach. By around noon both Charlotte and Liam were ready for naps. Nanny and Grandpa graciously took them back to the house to put them down for naps so we could stay and enjoy the beach. Thank you for doing that for us.

We had a couple of days of rain. I think it rained for 2 or 3 days. Might not sound like alot unless you are in a house on an island with three children under the age of two. Luckily we all pitched in to keep them occupied and did our best to get out of the house no matter what. Charlotte and Liam got along really well. Liam is starting to really like Charlotte (or as he calls her CHAR). Charlotte also loves Chase and took any chance she could to kiss him, rock him, or play with him on the floor.



On one of those rainy days the guys went fishing. Unfortunately the wind was gusting and the seas were rough so we stayed close to shore and fished for scup. Michael won for first fish caught (although dad had one first but it fell off the line as it broke the surface). Ian won for most fish caugh (I think it was 15) and last fish caught (we couldnt do biggest because they were all the same size). Next year we are going to go out on a charter for some really big fish. That evening we had beer and lobsters. Lots of HUGE lobsters. Yummmy.

Lets see. We did a decent amount of shopping but not as much as prior years. Mainly because the toddlers were all set with shopping. They just wanted to walk. And walk they did. Daily walks. Afternoon walks. Walk walk walk. Crazy how kids like to walk and adults like to drive.

Mom and dad did go to dinner at Lure one night. Mom ordered the best sea scallops dad has ever had. She only let him have one. Delicious. Expensive but delicious.

We also all went to Sharkys Cantina one night in Oak Bluffs. Charlotte loves Sharkys. Liam loves the manager at Sharkys but he was a little shy this year.

Luckily we all were able to get breakfast at the Edgartown Diner a couple of times as well. They make a great breakfast and a mean breakfast burrito.

The highlight of the vacation for the kids was Liams birthday party. They both learned to blow out the candles and loved singing Happy Birthday over and over again.


Ok, enough with the post. Im sure you all want to see some of the pictures.
Click Here to check them out on Flickr.

The Vineyard

Since the market has been in the dumper lately, oil prices continuing to rise, consumer spending down, we have decided to help the local economy of our neighboring state to the south (Massachusetts), by spending a week on Martha's Vineyard. It's a must visit island if you have never been there. Quaint, laid back, and beautiful views everwhere you turn. The island is one of our top 3 places to visit.

We are looking forward to a little R&R and a "relaxing" vacation (if there can be such a thing with a 19 month old). In reality we are sure we will be sunburnt, hung over, chasing Charlotte up and down the beach, eating warm sandwiches that end up covered in sand. Ahhh the life of a beach trip. :) Wish us luck and we will post if we can. In the meantime here are some pictures to make you jealous.