Joan of Art

1. I have dubbed both my friend Joan and our painting get-togethers Joan of Art.

2. Did we have fun yesterday, or did we have fun?

3. We had fun.

Calendar posters on lovely cardstock to use as substrates + laughter + shared paints and brushes and whatnot + lunch + partially remembered guidelines for painting flowers + playing loose with brushstrokes = this start for me:

work in progress
11x14"; acrylic and ink on cardstock

Don't Lose Loose

So exciting: even when I get to the finishing stages of my first post-playdate postcard, I don't lose loose!

They Dipped Their Toes in the Narrow Clattering Creek
4x6"; ink, collage, acrylic, oil pastels
abstract
2018

Lettin' Loose, Loosely Speaking

Before our recent art playdate, Joan said, I need to loosen up … a problem I've always had with my art. I can't seem to move forward.

She was singin' my song.

Painting in Joan's company was terrific. I felt honor bound to the shared yearning we'd identified.

Two days out and working solo again, though, I feel attachment and fussiness nipping at my heels.

But, with Joan's and my time together as a beacon, I take a deep breath, cut my page into quadrants, and plunge into the water come what may.

detail, work in progress

Spectacular Solstice

With daylight stretching out endlessly in both directions, I stepped out of time on the solstice two weeks ago for an art playdate with longtime friend Joan at her home.

Sharing a wish to get looser and less fussy in our creativity, we got right down to some laugh-out-loud fun with a whole bunch of commingled art supplies.

The hours flew by, and suddenly there we were with two paintings apiece stuck in rip-roaringly ugly and decidedly unfinished stages.

Our exit plan: (1) select one piece, cut it into quadrants, develop the quadrants into postcards, send the cards to each other by post; (2) get together for a repeat playdate in a few weeks to develop the second piece.

Random process photos: