Attending, Befriending

OK, let's roll with unanchored, distractible, impulsive, unfocused, droopy, in a fog. Let's see what that-all looks like if I situate myself in my studio.

work in progress
adding new layers to layers added in October
on top of a painting originally done in 2015 
6 x 6" canvas board

 

NY (3)

Wanted to squeeze paint directly onto canvas and mix there. Done.

Wanted to do some splattering. Done.

Wanted to play with drips. Done.

Casual Elegant

On Monhegan, my dad and I made our own breakfasts, snacks, and lunches and ate them at our apartment at Tribler Cottage, but for dinner we walked the lane to the dining room at the Island Inn. In short order we learned how to snag the reservation that would give us the best chance at a window table overlooking the inn porch, the harbor, and Monhegan's little offshoot, Manana Island.

Dinner was an exquisite experience of 'casual elegant' each evening—with guests just a tiny bit dressed up, dark green bottles of artisan balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil perched on each table, an exhibit of Joan Harlow's oil paintings gracing the walls, windows open to the refreshment of sea breezes, and edible flowers bedecking each entrée.

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A few edible flowers jumped ship to one of my watercolors.

The Air Smelled of Honeysuckle and Hay
7x9"; watercolor, ink, and water-soluble crayon on canvas paper
abstract floral
2018

My Village

I am deeply grateful for my painting village—for the new friends I've made in the past four years through Leslie Saeta's Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days challenges, through Instagram, through my blog, and through the internet at large; and for my family and longtime friends—all of whom support, cheer, encourage, ask questions, give feedback, make suggestions, point me in directions, share links of interest, purchase my paintings, follow my blog, laugh with me, give me hugs, help me solve problems, and act as patrons of my art with various gifts.

They are my teachers.

I draw nourishment from them again and again.

Hard to imagine where I'd be without them—and why try? I know where I am with them and I am grateful day after day after day.

Especially when my internal world feels like a crazy wilderness.

Here's where my current tri-patch went today:

rotated my canvas, painted over yesterday

did some therapeutic journaling

let Hans Christian Anderson put in his 2¢ via collage

Don't Fence Me In

You know how I can fuss for surprising amounts of time with twenty square inches of postcard real estate?

Today's studio adventure, a Valentine to myself, so to speak:

• one thousand seven hundred twenty-eight square inches (equivalent to 86 postcards),

• twelve minutes, and

• a large dose of happy-go-lucky-devil-may-care.

layer #1, work in progress
2.5x4 feet, with a 4x5" postcard for perspective