A beautiful collection of watercolor paintings paired with poetry. The paintings and poems in this book are reflections from the painter and poet transmitting the experiences marked by their pauses on the path of their shared life of sixty years. The die was cast early in their experience together that beach, mountains, desert, flowers, and water would be profound influences on their art and poetry. The collaboration in this volume contains some of Gene's favorite paintings and Jane's favorite poems. Together they take you on trips to their favorite spots in the natural world. Their meditative paintings and poems stir family memories and universal responses.
About the Painter
Gene Elsdon’s first foray into the world of art was in the nineteen sixties. It took him to a sculpture class in which he created two handsome table sculptures. For the greatest part of his adult life, he was a high school biology teacher. A few years before he retired, he read Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and began sketching regularly. When he retired in 1996, he began taking art classes at Cuesta College, taking most classes they had to offer. So began his serious adventure in the art world. He now works out of his home studio overlooking the oak-studded hills of Atascadero. His work or copies of it can be found in homes from California to Uruguay.
In 2000, his still life, “Western Wear,” was awarded Grand Prize at the Rancho Arroyo Grande Embrace the West Art Show. His work has been exhibited in many Central Coast art exhibits at the San Luis Obispo Art Museum, the Paso Robles Library, the Cambria Wine Festival, the Atascadero Wine Festival, and Hoover’s Restaurant.
About the Poet
Although Jane Elsdon was fascinated by the written word from her early years onward, it wasn’t until mid-life that she left the work world in which she had been secretary and executive secretary, preschool teacher, and eligibility worker to pursue a career in writing.
She was awarded first prize for a short story competition in the national journal, Crosscurrents. She has published numerous short stories and poems in literary journals such as Short Story International, Student Short Story International, Café Solo, Lifetimes, Science of Mind, Women’s World, Pudding. Her work has appeared in countless anthologies. She has published a children’s novel, The Secret of the Dunes, a full length book of poetry, Outdistancing Darkness, a poetry chapbook entitled, Shadow Work, which received honorable mention in Pudding House Publications’ National Looking Glass competition, who published it. She collaborated with the late Beverly Young in two limited edition ekphrastic art books: Singing Dreams into Form and The Living Dream. Morning and Other Glories and In the Rain Shadow are her most recent poetry chapbooks. In 2008 she collaborated with six other poets known as Plein Air Poets of San Luis Obispo County in Poems for Endangered Places. In November 2011 her latest book, My Mother Died in the Phoenix Fire, Stories of Survival and Hope, a collection of twenty-two short stories was released.
