Commissioned Dancing Bear Painting

I completed my commissioned bear painting. It is titled "They Danced with the Fireflies". I love the idea of dancing bears in a scene of celebration! It's painted on the top of a wooden chest and will go in a bear themed guest room. It was fun to paint! The fireflies remind me of my Costa Rica trip where I saw fireflies while Greg and I were sitting on the beach one night. They were so cool! I loved watching them.

Montezuma, Costa Rica

We’re in Montezuma. We’re staying in a little cabin/yurt right off the beach. To get to the cabin from Montezuma, one has to walk along the beach for about 5 min. There is a main house on the property which the caretaker is staying in. The owners live in Switzerland. It’s been raining in bucket loads almost non-stop here. At times it makes the metal roof on the cabin roar. Other times it is a continual pitter patter sound. But we’re used to it by now. It lulls you to sleep at night. And when the sun does come out, it is gorgeous here. Even without the sun it is beautiful. The flowers are colorful and so pretty, the palms and plants all green and healthy!
We have monkeys that play in the palms around the cabin in the mornings. Big butterflies and hummingbirds come to visit the flowers. We haven’t ventured out much though. Just into town to buy groceries and eat some dinner. The cash machine in town has been broken since we got here so we’re thinking we have to get to the next town to go to the bank. There is a bus that goes there every 2 hours. It is 7 km away.

I’ve been working on getting new greeting cards online at a shop I created at Greeting Card Universe. I have new cards there and I'm working on getting my older ones online now. You can check it out at this link: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/lgrugercardstore

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

We've been exploring and getting to know this small town of Puerto Viejo. At first when we got here we weren't too sure about it. It is smaller than I thought it would be. There is one main street that most of the restaurants and shops are on. There are side streets too of course and the Hotel Guarana where we are staying is on one of them. The more we explore, and go to the restaurants and talk to people, rent bikes and ride around, go to the beaches and hang out, the more we like it. We snorkeled one day and have been going swimming everyday too. We especially like this one cafe called "The Bread and Chocolate". We've gone there 3 days in a row now.

We're starting to get familiar with things and meet people who live here and now, I will say we really like it here! Yet we are looking forward to visiting the next place. Montezuma which is on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. We've met two different persons that have said Montezuma is their favorite place in Costa Rica. It has been great staying in one spot and being able to explore the area for a week. We will stay a week in Montezuma as well.

It has rained some here. In fact, we've been caught in a couple down pours. But we haven't needed our rain gear at all and we're thinking we won't need it...but one never knows. It is so warm that it feels good to be in the rain. There are lots of beautiful trees, plants and flowers everywhere....very lush and green!

The Hotel Guarana has a Treehouse (see photo)! And it was fun to climb to the top and check out the view! There are also lots of cool art touches around the Hotel that we are enjoying discovering. As well as lots of mosaics around the town.

Travel to Puerto Viejo

We went to Austin, Texas first for 2 days and enjoyed the music scene. And then got up early to get to the airport to fly to San Jose, Costa Rica. We had a long travelling day yesterday. After we landed in C.R. we took a 4 hour bus ride to Puerto Viejo. We had got up at 4 a.m. to drive to the airport. Puerto Viejo is a small town/village on the Caribbean coast. It has a jamaican feel to it. Very laid back and artsy. We're staying at Hotel Guarana, a very nice, charming, comfortable place to stay with little cabinas. There is lots of green jungle surrounding the area with beautiful beaches. I'll try to post some more pics of the village and beach soon.
I liked these boat images and I'm thinking of putting it into a painting with boats in it.





Also, here's a good link to a packing list for Costa Rica. It came in handy for remembering things to bring.

Costa Rica Trip

Greg and I are getting excited for our trip. We leave this Friday for Costa Rica. We're formulating our plans and getting confirmations from all the places we're going to stay and the transportation services we'll be using. We aren't renting a car so we have to get creative in how we'll get to various places. We're looking forward to renting mt. bikes and exploring different areas once we get to a place to settle into. We'll be staying in 3 different areas. Each for almost a week. One on the Caribbean side and 2 on the Pacific side. I added the weather window on my blog so you can see what's happening there. Looks like a lot of rain!! Oh well, we'll have fun no matter what.

But before we get to Costa Rica, we'll be going to Austin Texas for 2 nights. It's Greg's birthday next week and he wants to show me the sights and sounds of Austin before we start our Tropical Adventure. So we're looking forward to hearing some great music and celebrating Greg's Bday. I'll keep you posted. For now, be well and I'll write again soon.

More Costa Rica Links

Greg and I have all the legs of our trip for the various ways of travelling in Costa Rica covered. We're not renting a car so we'll be travelling by bus, taxi and plane. This site has been very helpful www.easyridecr.com. And this site is great too: www.monteverdetours.com/transport/index.htm
Greg found a site about the night life/music scene in the Montezuma area which is on the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific side: http://beachareapropertiescr.com/costa-rica-night-life-tambor.html
We'll be staying in Montezuma for a few days...Looks like we'll be doing some dancin'. I'll be bringing some paints and paper along too so I can get some paintin' in as well. Can't wait!

Costa Rica Travel Plans

Greg and I camped out last night under the stars near Todd Lake, near Mt. Bachelor. The sky was so beautiful with so many stars! Made me wish I could capture it in a painting. We talked about our trip to Costa Rica and made plans. Today we've spent most of the day researching Costa Rica on our computers. Lining up places to check out and stay, etc. Looking at all the transportation means of getting around, etc. We both sat with our lap tops and surfed, discussing and sharing and getting excited about our trip!
Here's a couple great links we found for traveling to Costa Rica.
http://www.puertoviejosatellite.com/
and
http://www.costaricaguide.info/en/home.htm
AND check out this beautiful tropical image by Chris Ambrose at her Imagekind.com gallery shop.

Happy Travels!

Quit Work, Travel, Do Art

Today I submitted my resignation where I work. I'm going to be traveling to Costa Rica for 3 weeks with my boyfriend, Greg. We are leaving Oct. 3rd for 3 weeks! AND I am going to be focusing on my ART, devoting more time to painting and my online presence. It is not easy having 2 careers (I'm also a computer production artist) and focusing more on my Fine Art ventures will make me very happy. :) I'll write more about getting ready for our trip and my leaving my full-time day job in the days to come.

Here's a link to some other artists telling about quitting their day jobs.

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... C: wait... SD: wait...