red robins

This little painting was inspired by a collection of darling ornaments I found at a gift shop near the studio where I teach. I often buy objects for sketching and these were irresistible.

I'm finally on the mend from the horrible cold virus and feel excited for the holidays and to paint, paint, paint! As usual my mind is going in a million different directions so I'll need to pin myself down and focus on two or three ideas at a time.

The Season is Upon Us

The one true indicator that the holiday season has arrived is my blasted annual head cold. Why is it some people can go through life never missing a day of work or school and others (like me) catch every virus known to man? I take my vitamins and eat a relatively healthy diet, so what's the deal? Oh well, I've decided to use this annual forced rest as a time to look around, take stock of my life and figure out what is working and what is not.

What works:
Painting in my studio, with the music on, this is when I'm happiest.
Hanging out with my family on a Sunday morning reading the newspaper while the kids read the funnies.
Morning walks with my best friend. It's good exercise and excellent therapy.
Puttering in my house, rearranging this and that.

What does not work:
Committing to too many things and doing a mediocre job at them because of over commmitting.
Worrying over the housekeeping. Worrying doesn't accomplish anything, doing does.
Listening to the news, not a good idea for anyone who's thin skinned.

Those are my thoughts this morning.

try again

What a morning, I've tried to create this entry about a half dozen times and each time it fails so...

Here we go again.

I'm interested in exploring interior spaces. The next move is to set up the oils and try my hand at it. I'm especially intrigued with the view of one space revealing the entry into another space. Hmmm...

Morning Sketch

This morning I drew from a photo found in "Tasha Tudor's Garden". Such beautiful images in this book. When I don't have the patience to go looking for an object in the house to draw, photos from a good book work well as backup.

I find myself feeling the yearly case of the holiday blues. So many things I'd like to do and never enough time to do them. It's time to sit down and decide what really matters.

It's SNOWING!
For those of you not familiar with the Seattle area, snow is a big event. This is our second snow in a week and I'm in heaven! Around here you take one of two stands on snow, you love it because it's a rare and beautiful site, or hate it for the chaos it creates on the roads. I'm a sucker for a winter wonderland.

I was asked do I draw and paint to the exclusion of less interesting chores. As often as possible. We have a fairly traditional household, but everyone chips in, which means my house is presentable most of the time but wouldn't survive a white glove test. My husband doesn't cook, but is great at doing dishes and keeping all things electronic running; the kids have daily and weekly chores. Everyone is pretty happy if I keep them in clean clothes and provide good dinners. We do a flurry of cleaning once on the weekend and call it good. The downside is nothing is ever as clean as I'd like. But given a choice, I'd rather have people remember me for my paintings than my sparkling house. Besides, quite selfishly, I get much more satisfaction out of a painting that will last a lifetime than a clean livingroom which will last for the space of an afternoon.