Art Update: July 30, 2026

Where has Jo M. Orise been?

As I sit here, late in the evening, I wonder where time has flown?

Summer 0f 2025 I created the largest water color I’ve ever painted. A commissioned work.

A lady walked into my studio and said she had purchased a painting from me a few years back.

“Where was that?”

“At Aldermere Farm’s Art Show.”

I said, “Out to Pasture.” One of many framed artworks I had hung and sold at the Aldermere Art Show over the years.

She looked surprised and said, “Yes.”

In turn, I surprised myself to have correctly pointed out which one she purchased. But I do things like that and don’t have a clue when or why it happens.

“I like your colors,” she said. “And I want to commission you to paint my back yard. I live on an island not far from here. My back yard is the ocean.”

I hesitated, then decided it would be fun and a challenge, for she wanted a very large painting. A planned secret gift for Husband at Christmas!

They lived in MA and spent summer days in ME. He occasionally returned to MA to work. One such occasion was comming up for him to leave the day after she left. The plan: I go to their summer home and paint the scenery from her back porch while they were gone.

I asked if there were cameras, alarms or neighbors who would notify authorities or her husband of a trespasser. “Not to worry. There are no cameras and the neighbors won’t say anything.”

So, on a beautiful summer day, I went with hubby.

In their drive, I spotted a suspicious light fixture—a camera, I was sure. I drove closer to the garage, stepped out, found the back porch of a beautiful summer home and sketched, snapped photos, examined the terrain, the water, rocks, birds, ships and boats going by. Beautiful!

The next day’s e-mail reported Husband had, without her knowing, installed a security camera, and a neighbor kept watch for them. He excitedly called Husband announcing an older lady with bags arrived at the home. Then she left later with her bags. (I had a bag for my paints and a sketch board with sketch taped to it.)

“Older lady?” Hmm-m. That was me. (My hubby was not captured in the footage.)

Wife removed the footage, and said she didn’t know what he was talking about. To stop asking the same question.

A highly prominant rock formation, I felt, had to be part of the painting…the focal point where all they admired and did was anchored to that monument of very white rock…Quartz? I’ve forgotten what it was called. But it is a point of great interst to their Geologist neighbor.

Here is the painting. Photo did not do justice to the blue. Sorry.

The painting took weeks to complete…first I created a rough draft which I painted, then I prepared the paper and created a background for it to be tacked to. That took a while. I had to change the background to homasote board. That worked best.

I struggled with the placement of so many objects wife wished to include…Husband in his boat, their kiyaks, her decorations.

Here’s Husband happy with his Christmas present. Only showing eyball and his smile’s dimple… to preserve his privacy.

A Cake-Walk With No Shelf To Spare

Sharpened the old hammer and nails and built a bunch of shelves.

We finally moved out of NH.

Our Maine home has huge closets, but shelving is very limited.

Why 24″ between closet shelves? At the left, you see big gaps between shelves.

Where there were three, now there are five!

At the right, I widened the single 10″ clothes closet shelf and added a second story.

This other closet’s bottom shelf is now over 22 inches deep and the top shelf is 12.

Now a stack of clothes won’t teeter and fall to the floor. Big improvement!

Next I’ll finish a closet started two years ago. It had been a huge, empty closet meant for a washer and dryer. I moved the back wall inward, creating more space in the kitchen located behind the closet. This freed up space allowed me to install a fireproof wall and a kitchen, wood-cook stove directly behind the new, smaller closet.

Next I plan to enlarge the walk-in closet upstairs. Big bedroom and the closet doesn’t have enough… you got it… shelves!

You do what you gotta do.

I’m off to make a building materials list.

That Shelter Institute course my son and I took years ago has really paid off more than once.

After building my Post and Beam home in the 90’s, this is a cake-walk.

Any projects in your neck of the woods?

Please leave a comment and share.

A Creative Process

Daily activities may find me tackling projects most people I know would never attempt.
Example, body work on a car. Yes.

Years ago, we had a very rusty car. It was a 1974 Plymouth, Valiant. After eight years of ownership, small rusty segments fell to the ground below the fender almost daily. Why get another car, this one was paid for, no more car loan.

During my teens, my neighbor, Richard, and other high school boys had done body work. One of the boys, Fiddy, designed a unique look to his headlights that he proudly paraded as he cruised around town. He had created a hood at the top of each headlight, which was pulled out and downward in a V shape, just about an inch or two in front of the light. It was pretty cool and very creative.

If Fiddy or Richard could do body work as teens, I could do the same in my thirties. Besides, I studied art at USM. One class project was a bondo covered sculpture. Bondo is pretty tough to work with. If I could handle it for a small sculpture, why not a bigger sculpture? Our Plymouth.

All I had to do was scrape, cut away, remove and neutralize the rust with acid. Then pop-rivet sheet metal, add metal screen which could be shaped as needed, apply bondo and sand it into shape. With mask to protect my lungs and rubber gloves to protect my hands I was grinding away when a neighbor walked by. I looked a fright as I sat on the pavement with my gear, I’m sure. “What are you doing now? Is there anything you don’t do?” she asked. Not really. If something needs to be done, I just—do it. I had impressed this neighbor when I had built decorative walls to hide the space below the porch and the deck. It looked great and added to the charm of the house. Another big sculpture.

I think in terms of art. Projects are sculptures, writing is painting with words, and art is painting with a pigmented medium.
belties gated
While I work on all these distractions, I ponder my next art work. What will I paint next. I mix colors and add colored glazes to get certain effects. Always works well in my mind. Working at the easel is different. Depends on lighting, colors available and—patience. Something else may happen and is better than I imagined. There are times where I just want to throw the painting away. But I keep it for a while. Every time I come across it, I shudder. There have been paintings that I kept for years, which I finally ripped to pieces or burned. No regrets. Here is one of my latest pieces. Sold. smile…

Writing is the same. I spent twelve years writing a story that was bouncing around in my brain for two years prior. So I wrote whenever I had time. The project haunted me. I had to complete it. I finally did—twelve years later in my retirement. I’ve been re-writing this story for the last three years. A slow process. I read novels of the same genre as I study the writing process. Therefore, I have re-written, ripped out segments, added new ideas and have re-shaped the story a bit. I like it better—another ‘sculpture’ I intend to finish.

Meanwhile, I’ve written a few fun stories just to get experience writing about another topic. Research is fun as I write. I have to either remember what life was like in the ‘50s or whatever period I choose. I’ve lived it, so I write about it.

On to my next painting or chapter… .

Smile in your mirror every day. Create something that makes you happy.