Francesca Filanc

Category: Art

Art San Diego and Spectrum Art-Miami

As this year 2014 draws to a close I wish you all the healthiest, happiest and most fulfilling of New Years!

Painting On Live Television

The past few months have been a whirlwind of activities. Aside from the traditional holiday events I was fortunate to have been selected to participate in Art San Diego 2014. I was also thrilled to be juried into Spectrum Art-Miami.

In Booth Art San Diego Two Paintings I Painted On TV Large One To My Left And Small One To My Right

Art San Diego In My Booth

In conjunction with Art San Diego 2014 I was asked to make guest appearances on KUSI, NBC and the Fox Morning Show.

Art San Diego Painting In Progress On KUSI News

Francesca Painting on NBC News Art San Diego

As well as being interviewed I created works of art while being filmed for these live TV shows. Francesca Filanc Being Interviewed and Painting on TV

View From Bench Under Arbor Where I Ate My Lunch Every Day At Art San Diego in Balboa Park

Looking Up At Arbor From My Bench Balboa Park
Art San Diego 2014

Arbor Art San Diego in Beautiful Balboa Park San Diego

Being a part of Art San Diego was exciting and thrilling. The show took place in the Activity Center in beautiful Balboa Park. Parts of Balboa Park are reminiscent of Italy, Spain or parts of France as well as San Diego! I would eat lunch each day in the adjacent beautiful gardens! They were quiet and gave me a chance to reconnect with nature and amazing architecture before returning to the show. ‪Francescafilanc.com

Setting Up Art Miami

Miami proved to delight me more than my wildest dreams!

Miami In My Booth

It wasn’t just the people and the shows, but the experience of being around so many amazing artists and their energy.

Art San Diego With Kelsey Giusta

Students In My Miami Booth

The show was a week long and in a very large tent. The tent was the size of several football fields and about 20 stories high! It was estimated that between seven and fourteen thousand

Looking Into My Booth On Left Miami

people a day came through to view the works of art.

A View Into My Miami Booth

Stargazer With The Painting’s New Owners – Miami

Stargazer With A Child Clothing Designer

There were 29 shows going on simultaneously throughout the town of Miami.

Spectrum Art-Miami with
Cirque du Soleil Performers

There is an expression used to describe this event; Art Takes Miami. Miami houses the largest collection of art fairs in the world. The largest art fair during the time of Picasso used to be in Basel, Switzerland. Since then they have expanded and now the largest is in Miami, Florida. Since 1970 twenty-nine art fairs have sprung up all over the city. Spectrum Miami is one of these.

Metaphysical In My Booth Miami

The history of Art Basel is as follows:

Art Basel was founded in 1970 by Basel Gallerists (also known as art dealers and connoisseurs of art) Trudi Bruckner, Balz Hilt and Ernst Beveler. Three years after its launch, Art Basel welcomed 281 exhibitors and over 30,000 visitors. While other emerging art fairs partnered in the 1970s, specifically in Cologne and Düsseldorf, Art Basel remained independent.

In 2002, Art Basel was launched in Miami Beach, under the leadership of former director, Samuel Keller.

Art Basel debuted in Hong Kong in May 2013. In July 2011, MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) Ltd. – the parent company of Art Basel – acquired 60% of Asian Art Fairs Limited, which launched ART Hong Kong and has the option of acquiring the remaining 40% in 2014.

Miami With My Friend Nora

These art fairs provide opportunity to new emerging and established artists to be set on the world stage with collectors, galleries and individuals interested in purchasing fine art. This has become the way to expose fine art of all prices from $50 a painting or sculpture or photograph to half a million dollars and up in price.

This was my first time visiting Miami and I did not know what to expect. The extremely friendly people blew me away and so many cultures, each with their own traditions.

See If You Can Find The Baby Alligators In This Photo Everglades

I was busy working the whole time but took the opportunity, staying an extra day after the show, to discover Miami and environs. My last day in Miami started with a tour of The Everglades in an airboat. Viewing baby alligators in the tall grasses and egrets. After the boat tour we had a show at the Everglades Park that included having the opportunity to hold a baby alligator.

Holding The Baby Alligator

In the spirit of the moment, I added an informative bus tour of Miami which also included a two-hour boat tour of Miami’s famous harbor including viewing shipyards, cruise ships and the homes of many famous people! Among the areas we visited by bus were: South Beach, Little Haiti, Little Havana, and Coral Gables to name a few. South Beach teemed with nightlife, eclectic varied restaurants with myriad aromas wafting through windows and doors onto the street, new quaint and older established hotels, night clubs galore with the delightful sound of Latin music. Visiting the area known as Little Havana where we had the opportunity to visit Cuba Tobacco Cigar Co.

Hand Rolling Cigars

Cigar Shop

While there I met the great-grandfather legendary tobacconist Pedro Bello Sr., holder of the cigar industries most prestigious leaf award. Great grand-pa sits outside smoking, they say, sixty cigars a day and drinking sweet Cuban coffee! He is 85 years old! We watched a man hand-roll cigars in the traditional old-fashioned way! People had the opportunity to purchase cigars. The district Coral Gables homes and environs were reminiscent of Pasadena and Beverly Hills, California;

Driving Under Banyan Trees Lining An Avenue in Coral Gables

even housing the famous Biltmore Hotel on one of its grand avenues. Kings, Queens and Heads of States have enjoyed the old world opulence and elegance of this famous hotel.

After Coral Gables the bus finalized our tour taking us to our waiting boat. In Miami’s harbor we sailed past three islands; Star, Palm and Hibiscus that are each privately owned by the homeowners of the islands. It is interesting to note that people of such high profile have or had homes right next to each other that can be viewed from the harbor! Several of the homes are now empty or have new owners which makes sense to me during this time of paparazzi! Some of the people whose homes we passed by: Madonna, Miami Sound Machine, Ricky Martin, Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Taylor, Bacardi Rum Family, Frank Sinatra, Don Johnson, Johnson & Johnson, Sylvester Stallone, even Al Capone had a compound and died there years ago! May I also add that many of these mansions had large expensive yachts docked right out front of their properties!

View From Our Boat In Miami Harbor

We sailed past a magnificent estate with Italian Gardens, including Italian Cypresses, parterres and vegetables. Docked at the water’s edge was an elegant yacht backed by romantic woods on either side. The joke is that this is the house that Viagra built, but in reality it is owned by an important person on the board of the company (Pfizer) that distributes the drug.

One Of The Grand Homes Seen From Miami Harbor

I was amazed that all these very famous people chose to live or have homes right next to each other in an area accessible by boat to onlooking tourists. Perhaps this is why several of the homes were vacant or recently sold!

I ended my day with a most delicious meal at Joe’s Stone Crab! An elegant restaurant dating back to 1913.

Joe Weiss opened up a small lunch counter on Miami Beach. Back then, Miami Beach was just a quiet, backwater town. Folks stopped in to chat and for a top-notch fish sandwich and fries. This, of course, was only the beginning, and what happened next is a story worth telling.

Joe’s Stone Crab
Yummy!

Sitting in Joe’s Stone Crab eating a delicious dinner while sipping on a up Gray Goose Martini I was lost in thought. It was so reminiscent of days gone by, viewing a traditional Christmas tree with tinsel and all — it took me back to my childhood!!

Bye For Now,

Francesca

January 7, 2015
Jan’s Shangri-La

Jan in Her Beautiful Garden

Last week was the end of the year party for Olivenhain Garden Club. We were blessed to have our party in Jan Casado’s garden. Once in her garden one felt like one never wanted to leave. A few of us ate lunch at a table under a pergola looking out at the view– it felt like Shangra-La.

Jan has her degree in horticulture from Cal Poly Pomona. She was originally an art major but switched to horticulture. This is evident from Jan’s garden. Jan is also a Garden Designer.

Male Hooded Oriole like the one that stopped to get a drink from the birdbath!

I am not a perfectionist. My credo is from the Amish, Perfection is for God. If I had become an artist I would have been a realist.

Jan’s paintings are her gardens. The garden is her palette. Birds and butterflies fluttered by in profusion as my companions and I sat transfixed in her Shangra-La. Jan grows the Asclepius, commonly called milkweed. This is the host plant for the monarch butterfly. Butterfly blog

At one point a male hooded oriole stopped to take a drink from the birdbath, spotted us and quickly flew away before I could snap a photo. When I asked Jan her favorite garden to design, her response was “English wild garden.”

When you first climb the steps to Jan’s little piece of paradise you are greeted by a carpet of Dymondia margaretae. Dymondia is slow to grow but when established is softer and more inviting than grass, not to mention drought-tolerant. Jan enjoys walking barefoot on it and occasionally practices yoga on the Dymondia. Jan has three Duranta erecta about 12-14 feet tall painting a purple backdrop to the garden.

Seated Under the Pergola
Birdbath in Background is Where Oriole Landed

When I started designing my garden, my idea was to have it all blues and purples. As the garden progressed I added complementary colors. I am very proud of my Kniphofia uvaria (Red-Hot Pokers).

Why do you love to garden Jan, what does the garden give you?

Jan responded in a thoughtful manner,

Gardening gives me peace and tranquility, serenity and beauty. I garden two or three hours a day. I very seldom sit in my garden.

Duranta erecta

Jan is also a beekeeper by happenstance. One day bees planted a hive in her garden so Jan read up on being a beekeeper and now has three hives. Jan is a true renaissance “pioneer” woman. Jan made the rebar structures for her tomato plants, twelve feet tall. She remembers gardening as a very young child with her father. She learned how to use the chipper at the young age of eight. She is a truly hands-on gardener and does everything that a garden needs. Jan also composts in the bin method; very large trash cans that she moves the compost from bin to bin until it is done.

Jan has also brought some beautifully shaped agate rocks from her property in the Sierra Nevada.

I’m really a mountain girl at heart. I am most at home in the mountains and we are building a home on our property and will eventually live there full time.

Jan is an amazing cook. She makes everything from scratch, even making all the food for their many back-packing trips in the Sierras. Jan is a Pescetarian (a vegetarian who eats fish) and she eats very little dairy. What follows is Jan’s amazing recipe for sweet potato tacos.

Because this is a staple in our diet, I cook four pounds of pink beans at a time.

Prepare the beans.

Soak 4 pounds pink beans in a large canning pot with plenty of water because the beans will expand. Add 3 tablespoons baking soda (helps with flatulance). Change the water twice in an eight-hour period.

One time I left the beans too long and they molded and I had to throw the whole thing out. You can tell by the smell.

Thoroughly rinse beans at the end of the day and put in refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, put back in a large pot with plenty of water
Add three potatoes Jan likes Yukon with their skins on
8 carrots
28 ounces canned tomatoes Jan uses her own from the garden
Add lots of salt, 3 or 4 T
4 T dark chili powder Sprouts Market
1 heaping t celery seed
1 t curry
Pepper about 1/2 t

Sauté one onion and ten or twelve cloves of garlic. Cook four hours or longer. The longer one cooks the bean, the less flatulence. Once cool freeze in zip lock freezer bags, quart size.

Ancho Chilies (from Sprouts Market)

Cook ten at a time, remove the skins – Jan cooks hers over a gas stove, but it can be done in the oven. Put them in a ceramic bowl with a plate on top for twenty minutes or longer and then skins peel easily. Jan also freezes these to take out when needed.

Prepare your sweet potatoes (1/2 sweet potato per person) Peel and cube, steam until done.

How to Assemble Jan’s Incredible Sweet Potato Tacos:

If any ingredients are frozen take out ahead of time to defrost at room temperature.

Wet tortilla, (Sprouted Corn— Food For Life, available at Sprouts Market) spray small amount of non-stick canola oil on both sides and then put tortilla in frying pan about ½ minute each side.

Layer the taco in this order
Beans
Ancho Chilis
Sweet Potato
Jack and Cheddar cheese
Homemade salsa (Jan’s homemade salsa recipe below)

Put filled tacos in a casserole dish and keep warm until ready to serve, about 200 degrees. Serve with homemade guacamole, lettuce and homemade salsa.

She makes her homemade salsa in a Vitamix blender. If you don’t have a Vitamix, hand chop or chop in your Cuisinart.

½ red onion
½ red bell pepper
1/2 to 1 1/2 jalapeno
½ bunch cilantro
1 T lemon juice
6 small tomatoes or three large
heaping T dark chili powder (more is better) Sprouts Market
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
heaping t salt
1/2 t pepper
3/4 T celery seed
Dash of curry

If using Vitamix , mix on level 2 for 30 seconds, level 5 for ten seconds.

In conclusion Jan is a Pioneer Woman who has created a true Shangra-La for her family and friends! Jan’s Realism Art is evident in Jan’s gardens, her own and those she designs for others. I, and I venture to say everyone, was deeply inspired in Jan’s garden. I for one was inspired to go pick up my paint brush and pen to write!

Happy Summer and making art in whatever form that takes you!

Bye for now,

Francesca

Dancing Stars by Francesca

June 20, 2014
A Visit To An Artist’s Studio

The artist, Tom Leedy, in front of his painting “Horses Aqua”

Earlier this week I got a call from a friend. Fran I’m calling to invite you over to see my artist studio. I was thrilled to receive his invitation!

Here are a few excerpts from my interview with Tom—

Tom: There were two things I knew when I was growing up: one, I was going to marry and have a family, and two, I loved Art! . . . the most amazing achievement and expression of what humans can do! To me there is nothing better than making a good piece of art! I built this space two years ago and I am thrilled with the studio!

Tom has his bachelors in fine art and was a professional artist for many years. He concentrated on stained glass because it was big in the 70s.

Having four children is a lot of mouths to feed so Tom went into the computer industry. He thoroughly enjoyed his work in the corporate world traveling to Japan among other countries.

Tom is a well-rounded individual with many passions; sports, all sports, but running daily and playing tennis two to three times a week, reading, traveling to Hawaii and excursions to see his grandchildren just to name a few.

Fran: Tom, I see a photo of your dad. Did your father’s love of art influence you to be an artist growing up?

Tom: I suppose it did subliminally. I remember looking at a portrait my father did of my brother Dave and I thought, I’m going to do that when I grow up. I was interested in all the things boys are interested in growing up: sports, rockets, cars, but I knew that art was my thing!

Tom has been painting throughout his life but when he retired he started a routine of painting every afternoon.

I will never forget the date I retired, May 31 2013, etched in my memory forever as a very Happy Day!

I couldn’t wait for the time in my life when I could be doing art every day. I realized one day talking with Martha that we could survive without a corporate salary. Then I did it. Kids were raised, out of school and on their feet. I was then free to go back to my first love and passion. I felt liberation, freedom to return to that! I feel like a kid in harmony with the world. I am grateful.

Now my days are my own –I take a run either up here in the hills or down on the beach. I think about painting and inevitably images come to mind that I want to capture on canvas. Then I come home, have my lunch and head out to the studio in the garden.

The creative process —If you could only do one thing to leave a piece of art, that is great, that would be Success! Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great to be a businessman and build corporations -–awesome achievements in the business world, but great art. . . !

The struggle–I am maybe too much of a perfectionist to look at one of my pieces and say WOW, that’s it! The danger is that you are so examining of yourself that you overwork it! Not to leave it soon enough, know when to stop.

Tom has this quote on his wall from author John McPhee:

People often ask how I know when I’m done – not just when I’ve come to the end, but in all the drafts and revisions and substitutions of one word for another how do I know there is no more to do? When am I done? I just know. I’m lucky that way. What I know is that I can’t do any better; someone else might do better, but that’s all I can do; so I call it done.

Tom: I love that one by McPhee. Especially the part about knowing that he can’t do any better even though someone else might; I find that very liberating, very helpful in accepting one’s own work. I try to remember that!

Lately Tom has also started sculpting again. He is trying something new, carving in granite.

Fran: It seems to me Tom, that you are not afraid to start new things, to jump in with both feet and start something new.

Tom: It’s not scary for me to start a new process because I’ve never done it before. I am not afraid because it’s just for fun and to learn something new. I have confidence that I can draw and make forms and shapes! Can I do it again for a painting, to me, is the struggle because painting for me is the foremost form of art. I am a painter before a sculptor, a drawer before a painter, less scary to mess with sculpting. Like almost easier to excel when your expectations are lower, not so high.

“The Wave” in Granite

Tom: I carved a wave in stone – I find this amusing, cracks me up. Stone has seams and stuff like that. The process of working in stone is almost delicate in a way, even though it is granite! When you start to do something new you know how amazing it is and the amazement for the people who do that kind of art goes up! Blows me away!

Fran: Who are your mentors?

Tom: The guys who could refer to the real world not just the mind. I respond to it. Nobody touches Matisse in color, line and expression. Vermeer is a sheer marvel and Goya to name a few.

Tom’s studio is large, organized and light filled. He has photographs of people and relatives whose beauty or differences inspire him to paint. He has several pictures of his beautiful wife and his daughter. Look, wasn’t she a beautiful woman?! Tom exclaimed as we looked at a photo of his deceased mother-in-law.

Pressfield says it well:

Steven Pressfield, author – If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist? chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

Tom: What I like about Pressfield’s statements is that they reflect the almost compulsive love artists must have for their work – something they can’t not do, regardless of how hard or scary it gets for them.

Tom: I am free again, back in my own skin and I am in the journey, I am starting the run. I think people who can do it well are amazing!

I came away from the morning with Tom totally inspired to get back into my own studio! As I left I couldn’t help but notice this inspiring quote on his studio door:

Art is not a thing. . .it is a way~! Elbert Hubbard

Bye for Now,

Francesca

The artist in his studio

February 20, 2014
Joys of Gardening With Grandchildren

The author/artist granddaughter picking tomatoes to eaThis past summer my daughter who lives in Spain came with her husband and children to California for a five-week visit.

Their oldest daughter Anushka loves to garden. She is now six years old. Every time the family comes to visit Anushka and I have fun gardening. While they were here we planted some vegetables and seeds together, picked tomatoes and strawberries, and pulled out vegetables that were spent. Anushka was able to experience the cycle of the vegetables; lettuce, purslane and arugula. She had the experience of planting them as well as seeing them regrow from seeds in the soil after we had pulled the old ones out.

Monarch Butterfly on Asclepias curassavica

This summer people have been amazed by the multitudes of butterflies in Southern California. My granddaughters and I had so much fun gardening and playing in the garden all the while butterflies and dragonflies floated as if “lazily” overhead. For months I have been curious as to this fabulous phenomenon. I was thinking that it was possibly due to so many of us planting the plants that caterpillars love to eat and build their chrysalis on such as Asclepias curassavica. Also the fact that many of us through the years have become organic gardeners. And many more people plant vegetable gardens which also may encourage a variety of colorful butterflies and dragonflies to our gardens. Gardeners have been planting milkweed to encourage the Monarchs to their gardens. My grandchildren got to experience seeing the magnificent and beautiful chrysalises of Monarch butterflies and then the butterflies just emerged and still wet on a branch. This is a link to a blog post that I wrote on butterflies. Butterflies in Our Gardens

Monarch Chrysalis

I checked the Internet to find the answer to this interesting phenomenon. The article below speaks of this fascinating development in England also this calendar year 2013.

Britain’s butterfly population seems to have exploded this year, the buddleia bushes are bursting, the veg patches are teaming and there seems to be an invasion happening in my home.

Every day for the last week or so I have had to rescue at least one trapped butterfly from my cottage. They seem to appear from nowhere and crash desperately and repeatedly into the windows leaving their precious wing powder behind. I was always taught not to hold a butterfly as the powder comes off on your hands and that’s what helps them fly, I’ve no idea if this is true or not, but I like the idea of magic flying dust so I find myself leaping about with a pint glass in one hand and beer mat in the other trying desperately to channel Gerald Durrell and catch the frightened insect.

British butterflies have been in decline over the last 10 years with a 24% decrease in the common garden types like the Red Admiral and Cabbage White.

My childhood was full of butterflies and then they all seemed to disappear. British butterflies have been in decline over the last 10 years with a 24% decrease in the common garden types like the Red Admiral and Cabbage White so how come we are seeing this year’s butterfly boom?

Despite being around for at least 50 million years butterflies are fragile things that are hugely affected by environmental factors, their habitats are disappearing and more and more pesticides are being sprayed around the countryside which has resulted in our summers seeing fewer and fewer of these beautiful winged creatures fluttering about their business.

Peter Eeles, Chairman of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight branch of Butterfly Conservation attributes this year’s boom to three major contributors – the first is that we had a ‘proper’ winter (i.e. cold) which suppresses the ability for parasites and mould to kill off any stages that are overwintering. The second is that we’ve had a good summer and the fine weather has allowed the caterpillars to rapidly feed up – which gives less time for predators to find them (especially birds). And thirdly the sunny weather has allowed butterflies to maximise the time spent finding a mate, and for females to egg-lay – and for multi-brooded species we’ll see the second or third hatches and in good numbers.

So it’s excellent news for Britain’s butterflies this year and you can do your bit to encourage them into your garden by planting butterfly friendly flowers like buddleias and marigolds or visit the butterfly plants website for a list of their favourite plants to feast and lay on and let’s hope we continue to see them flourish and flutter by. Metro Newspaper.

Anushka and I also planted a succulent planter. Check out a blog post that I wrote on this subject. Create Your Own Wall Succulent Hanging Planter

My granddaughter was having fun playing with her fairy princes and princesses in the planter before it was finished as you can see from the photo.

I just recently read an article in First for Women Magazine that talks about how gardening alleviates stress in a person. Our lives are so stressful these days. Every time I go out and work in my garden my stress goes completely away. And I think, why didn’t I do this sooner!

The #1 Way to Nix The Stress of Daily Pressures:

When too many demands leave you feeling exhausted, take a time-out to tend your garden. Researchers in the Netherlands discovered that subjects who spend thirty minutes outdoors pulling weeds and planting flowers experience a significantly greater reduction in levels of acute stress—the kind created by rushing from one to-do to the next—than those who stayed indoors and read for a half hour. The authors of the study explain that soil contains a bacterium (called M. vaccae) that boosts the production of the happy hormone serotonin and relieves anxiety.

Sometimes I forget to get into the garden. Now is a great time to buy the winter vegetables to plant in California. We are so lucky here to be able to garden outdoors year round! I am so thankful for the blessing of working in the earth.

Succulent Planter That Author/Artist Granddaughter Created

Have Fun Gardening!

Bye for Now

Francesca

South Beach
https://francescafilanc.com/gallery/#lightbox/28/ FF

September 25, 2013
Growing and Maintaining a Garden Hedge

Francesca’s Garden Hedge

January of 2007 we had an unusually severe winter in San Diego County. Peter and I traveled to Spain for the birth of our first grandchild. When we arrived home from Spain in February several trees and shrubs had died on our property, or so we thought.

Since I had been to Ireland with my mother on a garden tour four years earlier I had longed for a garden hedge like the kind I saw all over southern Ireland! They are filled with all kinds of plants. In this way, the freeze in my garden in California was serendipitous for creating a new interest in the garden; a garden hedge! My gardener and I started to let all the plants that survived the freeze grow together. Then an amazing thing happened; some of the plants and trees that had supposedly died miraculously came back to life! Those branches that didn’t recover acted as support for the other climbing shrubs as they grew skyward and formed a solid hedge. As the plants, shrubs and trees grew I was enthused each time Sergio pruned the hedge. My mother came over one day to videotape a segment on properly pruning a garden hedge. The Correct Way to Prune a Hedge. The hedge consists of Cape Honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis), Periwinkle (Vinca minor), Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina), Mock Orange (Pittosporum tobira ‘Variegata’), and Abutilon.

If you check out Pat Welsh’s video above, Pat teaches one the correct way to prune a hedge. Looking at this hedge now, it needs to be thinner at the top than it currently appears in the photo. Back to the drawing board!

The hedge is now three stories high and creates welcome shade on a hot afternoon!

Happy gardening and painting!

Bye for now,

Francesca

Frost by FF

September 4, 2013
Summer Visitors

Grandchildren’s Room and
Francesca’s painting in the hallway

This evening my older daughter and her family will arrive from Spain for a visit. I am so excited to see the whole family! The grandchildren’s room is ready and I look forward to the patter of little feet running up to their room to see what outfits Mimi has on the wall for them. The Pink Grandchildren’s Room

Pixies and Fairies
Painted by the Author/Artist when she was seven years old

Two paintings that I created years ago when I was a child myself are framed and hanging on the wall . My mother had kept these paintings and had them framed for my oldest daughter’s first birthday.

For those of you, like me, who have grandchildren who live miles away, you know the feeling of feast or famine with the family.

I have been gardening in the children’s garden seeing that it needs attention! There is a jungle gym for the children to play on as well as many little gardens for them to dig and plant in.

The Wisteria

A song came to mind that I heard years ago that matched my mood and excitement of the day. Michael Franti – Say Hey For years I searched for it on the internet and suddenly discovered it again.

Enjoy July whatever fun events or happenings you might have planned. I will look forward to being back in touch mid-August!

Bye for Now,

Francesca

Elephants at The Circus
Painted by Francesca When She was Seven Years Old

July 9, 2013
Summers Growing Up in Del Mar

Del Mar was a sleepy little beach town when I was growing up, coined Gasoline Alley by some. There were at one time thirteen gas stations in our little town when Highway 101 was the main thoroughfare to the City of San Diego. The County Fair was a big deal for folks when it came to town! Within a few days of the County Fair closing the Races would start. WOW! Movie Stars all up and down the beach! Summer Days in Del Mar

Lucy and Desi Had a House on The Beach!

I remember summer mornings swimming in the ocean, warm, sleepy afternoons painting and playing with our Barbie and Madame Alexander Dolls and plastic horses with my sister and friends. Our step-grandpa was John Lloyd Wright and we lived right next door to him. We called him Grandbot. Grandbot invented five toys. The most famous one was Lincoln Logs. He also invented a toy called Wright Blocks. They were sooo much fun to play with!!! Wendy and I loved making horse corrals and pastures on the grass for our plastic horses to run! The most fun part of our play for me was setting up the elaborate houses and pastures and placing our plastic horses in them, dressing and undressing the dolls in different outfits!

We also loved playing Indians (Playing Indians) and I loved playing Queen and Geisha girl. I would get bored of those two games quickly because once I was dressed up there was nothing for me to do except sit on the throne and be waited on. I remember one time my sister and our friends bowed down in front of me and said Salami Salami Baloney Baloney! We all fell into gales of laughter! My mother would help me get all dressed up to be a Geisha in a kimono with an obi. But once I was dressed up all I could do was sit, the outfit was so binding! After all that I would ask my mother to please help me get out of the outfit!

As a child I would become bored with some of the games. Looking back on it I am so happy to be an adult! Sometimes with all the stresses of adult life we may look back on childhood as an idyllic time of endless freedom and happiness.But in actuality many of us have more freedoms as adults. I guess what I am saying is even with all the seriousness, grief or traumas that we go through, when immersed in happy work, exercise, helping others we can free the passion of life!

Happy summertime! On that note I am going to go take a swim in the ocean!

Happy Swimming or whatever you love to do for exercise in the summertime.

Have a safe, Happy Fourth of July!

Bye for Now,

Francesca

“Beauty”
By Francesca

July 2, 2013
Growing Sunflowers Can Be A Summer Passion!

Sunflowers in Fran’s Garden

Sunflowers are so much FUN to Grow!!! If you have a place where you can put them every year they give so much joy! I smile every time I walk out and look at the field full of these tall prehistoric plants! Maybe that is why we love them so much! They have been around for a long time! And we feel the earth connection all the way back to cave man and beyond!

I actually did not know why I had never grown them.

In late June of 1996 Peter, Erica and I traveled to Madrid, Spain to see our older daughter Yvette who had been an exchange student from UCSD for the whole year. We then traveled by Eurail and Rick Steves suggestions of lodging and places to visit throughout Europe for one month!

Author’s Daughters in Provence, France, 1996

First stop off Eurail was the town of Arles, a town rich in Roman history and ruins in the province of Provence, France. We stayed in a small hotel for one week traveling to charming small towns such as Aix-en-Provence enjoying the multitude of nature’s sites through traveling through the countryside from small town to small town. The countryside was carpeted with fields of Sunflowers and fields of Lavender! In breathtaking excitement the girls and I ran into some of these fields and we could not stop taking pictures! It was awe-inspiring to experience!

Several years later Peter and I moved to a property that had lots of land. I planted a Giverny style garden with Nasturtiums lining one of the paths all the way down to horses in pastures far below our home. A girlfriend stopped by one day and exclaimed

Fran, why don’t you grow sunflowers!? I actually had no idea why I had never grown them! Especially since we had experienced the beauty and wonder of this ancient plant in the south of France a few years earlier!

Fran and her daughter Erica in a field full of Sunflowers, Provence, France, 1996

I love the very tall ones! This particular girlfriend gave me a bunch of seeds. I planted them and WOW!!!! So much FUN! This year I am planting a second Parterre of them so I will still have some when my grandchildren come to visit in July! After planting the seeds I cover the area with netting so the crows don’t pull up my seeds. I put the netting about three feet high on stakes. When the Sunflowers reached the netting I remove the netting and they continue to grow up to eight or nine feet tall! This year I bought the seeds online; some for their height, some for their seed production, and some for the Mammoth flowers. And then it is FUN to sit and paint them or take pictures to put on Facebook :) or just sit, smile and watch them grow. Have Fun Growing Sunflowers!

Oil on Canvas, Sunflowers by Francesca

Have Fun Gardening!

Bye for Now,

Francesca

Forty Eight Million Years before Van Gogh – Eocene Sunflowers

By Mike, September 29, 2010

Fossils of Ancient Member of the Daisy Family Discovered in Argentina

The Dutch born, post impressionist, artist Vincent Van Gogh famously painted a number of still life pictures of sunflowers. One such painting was sold at auction in the late 1980s for a little under $40 million USD. However, researchers at the Argentinian Museum of National Sciences have discovered their own “portrait of sunflowers” with the finding of two exquisitely preserved fossilised flowering heads in southern Patagonia (Argentina). Sunflowers are members of the Asteraceae (otherwise known as Compositae – we think) Family. This family of flowering plants (Angiosperms), is one of the most diverse and widespread of all the plant families. This family includes plants such as the daisy, dandelion and commercially important plants such as the tea bush and sunflowers.

Plant material is rarely preserved as a whole fossil, for instance, a fossil of the entire plant with roots, leaves and flowers all together. Fossils normally occur as isolated individual parts such as cones, pollen grains, pieces of trunk and such like. Delicate flowering heads (capitula) are extremely rare in the fossil record. However, the discovery of a fossil that shows two complete flower heads, winged seeds and the flower stem is helping scientists to understand the evolution of this very important group of plants.

The fossil has been dated to approximately 47.5 million years ago (Eocene Epoch) and it was found in strata along the Pichi Leufu river. During the Eocene, this part of the world had a sub-tropical climate with average temperatures of around 19 degrees Celsius. The dense flower-head would have been attractive to pollinating insects, suggesting that flowers such as these primitive ancestors of the sunflower already had a long established relationship with insect pollinators.

The Fossilised Flower Heads

Dr. Viviana Barreda, one of the authors of the paper, the details of which have been published in the journal “Science”, suggests that the finding of this fossil supports the hypothesis that the ancestors of the Asteraceae Family evolved in the southern region of Gondwanaland and spread to most of this super-continent before this landmass began to break up. This would explain the wide geographical dispersal of related genera.

Scientists believe that the common ancestor to a number of related plant families first evolved in sub-tropical Antarctica, (which was part of Gondwanaland), before migrating to Australia and South America as Antarctica cooled and became an unfavourable climate for most plant species.

Commenting on the discovery, University of Vienna (Austria) botanist, Dr. Tod Stuessy stated that this fossil and the related pollen grains were clear evidence of the existence of the sunflower sub-family at the early stages of Asteraceae diversification. Dr. Stuessy wrote an accompanying article to the Argentinian scientific paper. He went on to add that little is known about the origins of sunflowers and there is much still to learn about how these plants evolved and spread all over the world or indeed how members of the Asteraceae became so “incredibly diverse.”

The scientific paper on which the journal article is based is the culmination of two years of research.

http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2010/09/29/4643493.html

Fran and Pete in the Sunflowers, France 1996

June 26, 2013
Healing Garden

The Healer’s Healing Garden in Spain

A Photo of a Garden Reminiscent of the Healing Garden in Spain

I just saw a beautiful garden photo on Facebook and it reminded me of friends of my daughter in Spain who have the most Beautiful Garden! The husband used to be a brick mason and now he is in the Healing Arts. He practices Craniosacral therapy and also massage techniques to help with physical and emotional health. His wife is a lovely calm woman too. She seems to be a healer in vibration. I have been to their garden several times and have enjoyed the garden immensely when Anushka was a baby and later with Mikaela, her younger sister. The husband is always gardening when he is not working. He has no outside help. He does all the work and in my opinion the garden looks like Monet’s garden outside of Paris, Giverny. One can even see a factory from the garden but when you are in this lovely garden you are entranced by its beauty and the industry in the background disappears. The wife has brought me tea and/or cafe con leches and an assortment of homemade goodies while I waited with the baby in the garden. The lady of the house is also an artist and when one is inside their beautiful eclectic home, unless you pinch yourself you might think you were in Santa Fe, New Mexico rather than northern Spain!

Being in this healing paradise for an hour or two at a time with one of my grand babies I always feel an urge to paint! If the grand baby was awake I would drink in the moment and enjoy watching the child look with wide eyes at nature around her. When one of the babies was napping I would sometimes take out colored pencils and draw what I was experiencing visually. But many times I sat with a huge smile fixed on my face drinking in the magnificence of nature directed by man.

These luscious moments of life where we are truly in the moment are treasures that we can draw on through our lives.

I am thankful for beauty where I find it; in people in experiences in tragedy in beauty and ultimately in love.

Here’s to having experiences that we look back on as ahhhh moments!

Bye for now,

Francesca

Painting that Francesca painted from thoughts of Spain
www.francescafilanc.com

June 21, 2013
Cooking, Entertaining, and Making Art

I am having a spur of the moment dinner party tonight. As you might know from earlier posts I LOVE to entertain on the spur of the moment! Dinner Party Breakfast Expanding Vegetables Entertaining is one of my passions. It gives me the same feeling that I receive when I paint; entertaining on the spur of the moment heightens the excitement and exhilaration. I know most of you out there are thinking IS SHE NUTS? Yes, maybe a little. It’s what makes me an artist, that creative piece. Not to say a person is not creative if they like to plan out what they do ahead of time. Planning is actually an important part of creating art. I just speed up the process as I do in my style of painting. I like the adrenalin rush! Having gardened most of the day I picked a large squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, chives, mint, limes, lemons, apples, and kale which is really a winter vegetable around here in So Cal. A friend gave me a small plant this spring and it is doing great! Oh, and egg plant!

Now what to cook! I roasted the vegetables. Squash is peeled and then cut in small chunks drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper; same process for egg plant put on baking sheets covered with tin foil and baked in 375 oven for 40 min or until a fork goes through vegetables easily. Meanwhile I made kale potato chips for hors d’oeuvres. After washing kale, chop into 2” pieces, drizzle olive oil and sprinkle with salt (not too much, I have made that mistake!). You can drizzle with Ponzu Sauce instead of salting the kale. Bake in 375 oven for 20 to 30 minutes, maybe less depending on how much is on your cookie sheet. This makes a delicious hors d’oeuvre to accompany the dinner. And people love it because it is not fattening.

The fresh apples make a wonderful soup when combined with butternut squash. Here’s one of my favorite recipes.

Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 4 cups chopped yellow onions (3 large)
• 2 tablespoons mild curry powder
• 5 pounds butternut squash (2 large)
• 1 1/2 pounds sweet apples, such as McIntosh (4 apples)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups good apple cider or juice

Directions
Warm the butter, olive oil, onions, and curry powder in a large stockpot uncovered over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the onions are tender. Stir occasionally, scraping the bottom of the pot.
Peel the squash, cut in half, and remove the seeds. Cut the squash into chunks. Peel, quarter, and core the apples. Cut into chunks.
Add the squash, apples, salt, pepper, and 2 cups of water to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook over low heat for 30 to 40 minutes, until the squash and apples are very soft. Process the soup through a food mill fitted with a large blade, or puree it coarsely in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade.
Pour the soup back into the pot. Add the apple cider or juice and enough water to make the soup the consistency you like; it should be slightly sweet and quite thick. Check the salt and pepper and serve hot.

Many people have expressed an interest in my process of painting. I have a high tech studio in my garage with Ott lighting so I can paint into the wee hours of the morning if I am so inclined. Ott lighting gives the impression of sunlight.

Photobiologist and pioneer in light research, Dr. John Ott, discovered through 40 years of scientific research the remarkable effects specific wavelengths of natural light have on all living things. Dr. Ott developed the first OTT-LITE® product while filming “The Secrets of Life Series” for Walt Disney. A specially formulated blend of rare earth phosphors is used to create this unique illumination that looks and feels like natural daylight. TrueColor lighting allows details to be seen more clearly and colors accurately. Now it is possible to see with superior clarity without the intense heat, excessive glare and harsh distortion of standard lighting.

Last night I painted for 4 hours working on one very large abstract. A few days ago I painted from 3 pm to 11 pm. I took about a half hour break for dinner. My studio is all ready with everything at hand so it is easy for me to start painting without a lot of fuss to get my materials together. It used to be that I would use that as an excuse not to paint. Painting is my passion. So there is a lot of energy and emotion wrapped into the process. As an abstract artist I paint my emotions. If I am happy, sad, angry, melancholy, feeling sexy, whatever the emotion, you name it, the emotions wind up in my art.

I have said that painting great art is like shining a powerful searchlight up into the heavens at night. The light never dies! Great art is alive. My passion is like a drug! Once I start I do not want to stop. I love squeezing delicious colors of thick paint onto my palette. My favorite is Golden. I admire the colors before I start mixing them on and off the canvas.

There is an expression that I learned many years ago from Sebastian Capella.

Paint as if you are the wealthiest person in the world.
That means, use the best paints and accompanying materials. Don’t be stingy with the paint. Paint with thick luscious colors.

Another thing I usually do is paint on several paintings at one sitting. I have them all over the studio and spilling out into the rest of my garage. I get into a frenzy of movement from one to another. Sometimes I concentrate meticulously on a painting and make it very detailed with many layers of paint and then with one fell swoop put my whole body into the process of mad strokes of paint and color over the top. In this photo I used a brush. I also use palette knives.

In my paintings I am moving energy at lightening speeds. Well, maybe snail speeds, but the paint is flying. People feel the energy in my completed work. It is a fascinating process. This is another interesting component to art, being that it is alive. It is forever changing, growing, evolving. They talk of Picasso and his “blue period.” Every great artist has different periods of his work. Françoise Gilot, a great artist in her own right, spent hours every day talking Picasso into getting out of bed and producing more art. In his later years he would paint all day and the very next day say that his art was crap and he would not get out of bed to paint another painting. Thank goodness for Françoise or the world would have a lot fewer of his masterpieces!

Happy painting and creating,

Bye for now,
Francesca

All this paint you see and much more is on this canvas

July 31, 2012