It isn't often you get to be in the middle of a war, and it is certainly something to make you appreciate life. Eventually the war ended, the US military packed up and went home, and life was back to normal; as if nothing ever happened.

The above painting is of the patio at the "Surf House" The Surf House was the big community recreation facility in Ras Tanura. When I was a kid in Ras Tanura, the kids used to hang out there, and some things never change with time; my kids used to hang out there too.

Here's a painting of the "Patio with an arts and craft sale taking place.

The sun rose over our beach and it was often quite unbelievable to see. I used to walk down the beach every morning for exercise, and many of the paintings I did were inspired by those walks.

The following painting of the RT beach path is like the patio, it has been there for generations; I walked on it when I was a kid as did my kids. I think this path was one of the unforgettable features of Ras Tanura I can't begin to tell you how many people commissioned me to paint that path. It is still popular today and requested by people who used to live there.

Those who know me also know I spend 30 years living in Saudi Arabia, 10 as a kid and 20 as an adult. People always feel sorry for you when you tell them that, but the majority of it was a great experience. We were fortunate to make some really good friends with other expatriates who lived in our community, and then there was the travel. Because we lived there and went on vacation once a year, we have traveled to many places in the world that are the dreams of most, but reality for few.

The above piece was painted right outside our back door in the Arabian gulf town of Ras Tanura. How miserable can you be when you are living about 30 paces from the water's edge?

My husband Mike and I were eating lunch one day in 1990, looking out at this beautiful view when we heard on BBC shortwave that Suddam Hussein wanted to invade Kuwait. At that time Mike said, "ah, he will never do it, his bark is worse than his bite." Within a couple of days we were hearing that troops were massing in Iraq on the Kuwait boarder. You have to take into account if you did not listen to BBC shortwave, and you lived in Saudi, you didn't know a thing about all of this because all news going in and out of that country was censored in those days. By this time Suddam was saying he planned to take Kuwait first and then move on to Saudi. Okay, so I was getting a bit concerned even though Mike still insisted Suddam would not be that stupid! It was a Thursday morning and I was taking an art class at our local art group when I found out Suddam had indeed made his move and invaded Kuwait.

Going into all the details about what resulted in our lives next would be the subject of another blog. There were some times while that war was going on we were scared out of our minds, but it general we weren't nearly as scared as our kids who were away at boarding school and college, and our parents who were in the US listening to it all of it unfold on CNN. Believe me when I tell you it is easier to live through it in person than it is to hear it on TV and not be able to do anything about it.

The following photo was one I sent my parents and kids while all of this was going on, and I still don't understand why no one thought it was funny but me. Where was their sense of humor?

If you remember the history of the 1st Gulf War, you know that at the end, just because he could Suddan ordered his army to burn the oil wells in Kuwait. As the crow flies, that was just up the beach from us, so it got pretty nasty on our beach as well. The following photo is interesting once you realize what you are seeing. That white line on the horizan is actually what was left of the regular sky color after the black smoke from the fires floated down the beach to our area. It just closed in on us from the top and shut out the light. Sorry, no plein air painting today!

Here's a pastel looking up the beach in the opposite direction as the painting above.

Back in the 90's I was living in Saudi Arabia, and since outdoor painting opportunities were slim, we used to escape to Greece to paint. My friend Trudy, who I met in Saudi was married to a Greek fellow and when they retired they opened a sweet little inn on the island of Syros where we used to go paint. Trudy and Kirk had plans to build a house on the other side of the bay from their inn. When I painted the previous painting all they had built was the bedroom with a porch; their private getaway. The above painting is entitled "Trudy's Escape."

The town on Syros where the inn was located was Kini. It was a quaint little fishing village where very little English was spoken because it was not a tourist destination for foreigners, but a beautiful spot where the Greeks went to vacation to escape from all the tourists. The work below is just one of the many beautiful site in the tiny village of Kini.