Throughout the years, since my interest in painting has turned to passion, a quest for new inspiration has been a goal. Travels to new places and incorporating music themes into my painting have been two such avenues.

The "Girl Jazz Singers" paintings are a new series created to honor female singers from the Golden Age of Jazz.

It was common for the singers to tuck a flower behind one ear during their performance. I created three to represent Pearl Baily, Blossom Dearie, and Keely Smith.

The third and latest Lessons Series project is Lessons from the Pharaoh’s Tomb Part Two. Because ancient Egyptian history is so vast, the amount of material could be endless. All pigments used were from antiquity exactly like the Part One project. I was so profoundly captured by the people and myths that a second collection was a given. It was a complete joy to re-visit many of the same stories and to research new ones too.

The Festival of Opet is one of the most magnificent events that took place each year in ancient Egypt. In Thebes, present day Luxor, the Pharaoh and his queen led a procession of one and half miles from Luxor Temple to Karnak with offerings to the gods to ensure rejuvenation and rebirth of the Pharaoh’s powers. A sheer magnitude of 80,000 people joined in the festivities including feasting, dancing, acrobatics, and music, all subjects included here in this painting bearing the name of the festival. Log on to my blog: MargretShortBlog.com to read all the stories and see the images from the collection.

Lessons from the Pharaoh's Tomb is the second of my Lessons Series pigment project. It was inspired by a trip to Egypt in January 2009, and after intense research and study, I created a body of work using pigments from Egyptian antiquity. The paintings all feature imagery, myths, events, colorful stories of gods and goddesses, and Pharaohs dating from 3500 BCE. Two new pigments were unearthed, Egyptian Blue Frit and Egyptian Green Frit during the process, along with red iron oxide, azurite, orpiment and others.

Similarities between Egyptian historical pigments used in tombs and temples and those used in the much later Golden Age of Dutch Art were discussed. You can follow the journey by visiting my blog at MargretShortBlog.com The nearly sold out collection was presented in the fall of 2009.

The "Lessons from the Low Countries" project came about due to my interest in Rembrandt and other Dutch masters; and my desire to study the historic pigments they used and introduce them into my work. Each work was inspired by the color palette of a select painting in the exhibit "Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art," which traveled the United States in 2006-07.

To make the pigments, I hand-ground them in linseed oil. Each step of the project is documented in my blog (MargretShortBlog.com). Luscious colors with magical names like lapis lazuli, cinnabar, and azurite were used as the focus of each bountiful still life. There is no comparison to the handling qualities of the modern pigments. Everything about the handmade historic pigments is different from the modern: particle size, thickness, consistency, color, saturation, and on and on. The eleven paintings were shown at an exhibit in Portland, Oregon June, 2007, alongside reproductions of the Dutch inspiration paintings from "Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art."

Very recently a friend from New York, Robert Doak, has enlightened me with another challenge. That is the technique of painting on copper. This idea is centuries old and many of the masters like Rembrandt and Chardin painted glowing images on mostly small formats. Contrarily, many quite large altar pieces were installed in churches all over Europe. Because it is so harmonious with my love of all that is old world, I have taken on a new challenge, and it is profoundly rewarding. The smooth nonabsorbent surface of the copper is perfect ground for the glowing look of chiaroscuro painting that I love. This is an on-going project.

The "Scherzo" series emerged through months of idea development and collecting of objects. I enjoy using objects and themes that have a subtle double meaning. After starting piano instruction in my adult years, music has become a passion. Because of this, art and music have merged into an harmonious union. Music and musical instruments are often incorporated into my compositions along with flowers and other related items. The similarities between art and music are astounding. There are another eight paintings in this series to be completed.