It’s not that I don’t think about it.  I do, and alot.  So many things have intervened since the last post, it’s hard to remember them all.  Part of the delay was surely the laptop, which I breezed by in the last post. Out with the old, in with the new.  It still amazes me how long it takes to make that transition, but it is done and I love my new HP, though I’m not wild about the touchpad.  That said, it’s pretty much the only thing I’d change on the machine, and it is so light I actually don’t mind carrying it around! 

Then, Wooosh, the holidays were upon us.  Time literally seemed to fly.  The 7th Anniversary of the Gallery, that was in the planning for 7 months (or more) came off quite well, even though there were far fewer in attendance that I expected, it worked out well given the small size of the current venue.  I posted video on facebook, but here it is again, just in case you don’t do the fb thing.

 Not sure we could have packed in any more folks as it was!  The musician is Tom Perry and he was great!  So, that was December 17th, and then the march was on to Christmas.  Then New Years.  Now it is the 3rd of January and tomorrow is my sister’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Beckles!  I won’t whisper her age, cuz I’m much older!  

Ok, so I’ll be 50 this year.  I can hardly wrap my brain around it.  Likely though, it won’t be much different than being 49. I spent most of this day painting, and that was wonderful.  Particularly since I’ve kind of been putting it off.  Dily Dallying around.  Doing the drawing, throughing it away and doing it again. It’s a commission, for a friend of mine.  Those are generally hard anyway, but this involves the human form and though I know “how” I’m reluctant to delve in.  It’s his dad.  The complication is that I don’t know his dad.  Painting from a photograph is ok if it’s a flower, but people, well, it’s more complicated…or at least it can be.  I procrastinated, and last night, when John said, “are you going to paint tomorrow?” I hedged.  I finally said, “I’m struggling with this one”.  He said, “I noticed”.  

Then, this afternoon, something happened.  The house was quiet.  The studio, recently cleaned, bekoned. And there, on my table was a blank canvas and a drawing on paper next to it.  When I do detail on canvas, I do the drawing on my computer (in Corel Painter) and then print it, and if happy, transfer to the canvas, so that I don’t damage the canvas with erasures and extra graphite.   I got out my transfer sheet, traced the image on to the canvas, opened my watercolor palette and wet the paint.  I sat down, and painted. Didn’t look up, didn’t hesitate for a moment.  Lost in the painting and time did not exist.  When I stood up and stretched, I glanced at the clock. Two hours had passed.  I’m not sure it’s done, but I think it’s close.  Very close.  


I love it when that happens.  Happy New Year!