Duuun Dun

It was his night to choose…

He chose Goldfish for dinner… Labatt’s Ice Pounders for drinks (which I poured into High Life glasses… you know, to class up the night) and Jaws for a movie… I took a break from painting this weekend, we are not getting along lately, painting and I… I’ll try again this week. So I crocheted.

And I single crocheted a new hat… around and around… no fuss like painting… just around and around while I ate goldfish and drank beer… around and around until all the yarn was gone…

And I tried the hat on my dogs…

and I pet the indent between their eyes and kissed their noses and told them over and over how talented they were at wearing hats…

Then I realized I should have had more to eat than Goldfish, so I put my new hat on and went to bed…

Tea, painting and Edith Wharton novels tomorrow… perhaps (but probably not)…

not giving up… starting over

Some days you wake up and stretch and breathe in the new air and say, “Today, I’m going to put in my old OC DVD’s and have a marathon watching, Cocoa Puff eating, awesome painting day!” You do say that, don’t you?
Then nothing works, you are out of paint thinner, your brushes are dirty and you find that you are just not at all invested in the image… Then something amazing happens, while still humming that darn OC ‘California’ theme song, you erase it all. And take a breath.

There is a definite freedom that comes with washing away the dust and dirt of our days… for the possibility of something better. It’s like driving at dusk with the lights of a sparkly city ahead, or the first snow of the season. Yes, Please. Sometimes the excitement of possibility is what we need. And sometimes, on very lucky days, we get to create something amazing on our new blank canvas…

After all, Cocoa Puffs are just as good (maybe better) when staring at a blank canvas and thinking that today could be the perfect day to begin again.

Oh, Eeyore…

Every year, in September…we go to a Mountain Cabin…

in the woods

on a lake with friends.

Last year when we returned I began a painting… bleh…

My husband has wanted me to finish this painting for … oh… a year… now. I’m close to finished just today!

I often think if I cut my head open; the inside must be this desolate, weathered place with an old Eeyore–esque donkey ho-humming as flies circle about his head… There is absolutely no urgency in there…The only reason I picked it back up… I was inspired by fog…

I woke up the last morning of our trip

and the world was new again…

… and from it the most gorgeous day emerged!

Now… if I could finish the painting before next year’s trip, that would be something!
Oh, Eeyore.

That was going to be it for today. I was pushing the Publish button… I took maybe 5 minutes to write this post…
Just heard my kid, “Mama… Pie got on my nose…” I went to investigate… “I was just sniffin’ it!” There was a big nose hole in the top of the Pie… and crackers shoved into it… 5 minutes! Sweet litte Weirdo… I went to wipe his nose with a tissue when I realized he had used them all yesterday to blow the dogs’ noses… all of the tissues in the house. I wonder who lives in his head…

Out in it

On my painting easel this week…

Trees… There is something about trees this time of year. I’ve been painting trees and barns and golden sun.The air is chilly and all I want to do is ‘get out in it’ … when I can’t do so, I paint. When I can, we do… get out in it…

Out among the trees…

Exploring…

I once watched a movie with Jennifer Gardner in it. She wanted a child. She couldn’t have one. She wrote everything she would want in a child on little pieces of paper and planted them in the garden. That night a boy who had leaves growing out of his legs grew from the garden and he was everything that she could have ever wanted. Everything that she had written on the little slips of paper.
I imagine that if I were to write everything I would want in a child down on little slips of paper and planted them in the garden I’d get a child exactly like the one I have… It’s amazing really. I think the first thing I would write would be… an Explorer.

As I walked down the steps the other morning I reheated a cold cup of coffee and I found a half-eaten bowl of oatmeal, a caterpillar in a bug jug (I’m assuming they shared the oatmeal) and a book open to different types of fish that Wyatt is learning about.

He was already off exploring…

Catching his own… Out in it… And then I spit out the coffee because I remember this was definitely not the cup from this morning. Seriously, I need to stop doing that. Then, I went out and joined them.
Out among the trees…

She’s there

Finding a place for the art we make in our lives… Why?

I don’t know why … exactly … I know that in this case, this painting reminds us of our vacation swimming hole… It is beautiful there and so many happy moments have come to be in that place… but there is more…

I know that while watching my two dogs nap beneath this painting that I have just hung in our new house…

I felt the third… My Meeshka in the stars….
She was there when I was painting it… running in a circle at my feet … so alive … so happy.

Beneath the brush strokes is her breath… her being.

When I see the work I did while she was alive… I feel her, my sweet baby in the stars.

Why do we find places for the work, the art, we make… because it belongs to us… it belongs in us, to live forever… to remind us that… it… we… they… existed…

Tonight…
that will be my guess.

It’s Official…

It is official, people! I have switched to Pumpkin Spice Coffee-Mate.
That is commitment… to fall, y’all.
Tonight the temps around here are supposed to be in the thirties… oh crappity crap….

The window fans are sad…

The Pumpkin Vines are happy…. (albeit a little thirsty)

Our dishwasher has given up on life…

I went to make our ‘Nurtri Blasts’ (blended fruit and veggies) for lunch, the freshly cleaned cups for the ‘bullet’ were still all gunky… so …

Today, my kid got to eat a peanut butter pumpkin… (THEY HAVE ARRIVED!) and I had my fruit and veggie…

It’s a special day after all. It is the day I commit to the chill of the fall!
I completed one last wave painting for the summer… I posted the video below!

Foggy Wave

Here is a quick demo of how to paint wave mist… This is a beginner lesson that shows techniques in oil. It is a combination of the first two lessons that I did!
Happy Painting!

Movie Night Convo… Everlasting Summer

There was to be an ‘End of Summer Soiree’ at the end of the day. We were excited.

I knew that I wanted to paint a wave for my last video post but I needed to know EXACTLY how it worked before I could make a video (last post) explaining how to do it. No biggie… The problem when you marry someone like me is that…

6 AM CONVO:

Husband: “Will you be ready by 5 tonight to go?”

Me: “Yes. Of Course … Can’t wait!” (Husband leaves for work)…

5PM CONVO:

Husband: (walks in) “Hey! Ready Dudes?”

Me: (sobbing; child still PJ clad; Dylan records playing) No! I must figure out exactly how a freakin’ wave works!

Husband: “Okay…cool” (Changes kid into clothes, makes dinner, takes picture) “Looks good. By the way, Is that a ‘Chip Clip’ in your hair?”

Yes, I have spent all day painting waves…that no one would care about…. NO ONE…. would care if I didn’t know how a wave worked before we went out. The fact that I couldn’t figure out EXACTLY how to do it was so freakin’ painful to me that I persisted and persisted until the video was made… WTF? No one cares… No one… What the crap is my problem?

I spent the day painting summer… an everlasting summer… while Bob Dylan and my kid circled all around me… By the time I was finished, I realized that I did indeed have a ‘chip clip’ holding the hair from my face and that I didn’t feel like going out. So we stayed home.

We ordered The Great Gatsby on Demand… we drank beers and ate cookies… it was awesome. I did not like the movie… I didn’t particularly like the book either… I did however like the idea of an eternal Daisy.

This night though, I was obsessed with the moment that Gatsby dove into the pool. After saying how he hasn’t taken a dip all summer. ALL SUMMER… Oh wait… Daisy was his summer… and Autumn was coming and he finally took the plunge and oh my goodness!!! Oh Gatsby…. couldn’t accept the passing of time…Leaves were going to clog the drains… Oh Gatsby… Oh me, Oh my…. Oh ME… Oh yes, I am Gatsby. I am the one with the infinite Summer in her chest. I am the one painting and knowing…

“You know , old sport, I’ve never used that pool all summer.”

Oh, Crap.

I’m feeling all weird now.

Videos!

I have begun adding my painting videos to this blog! These are ‘How to’ paint videos for beginners! YAY!!!
I hear so many people say, “I wish I could paint.” I think the problem is that people, including myself, want their work to be ‘technically’ correct… of course… BUT painting is so much more than that. It is to be explored, lived in, apart of us… It is to be fun and happy or stormy and sad. It is a journal and a feeling. It is to be absolutely enjoyed. It is not to be so frustrating that you give up. That is what these videos are for. They are quick little studies that are meant to inspire painting, just painting… music playing, coffee drinking, sun shining, painting…. that’s it! That is what I wish. I wish anyone who desires to paint to do it, regardless of if things look technically correct… I wish people pure happiness and joy in their work, I wish people to pick up a brush and to just paint!!!

Stormy Wave

http://youtu.be/_zhVho8GgVo

This video shows how to paint a sky and wave using Oil paint and a layering technique. The canvas needs to be primed and painted with black acrylic to begin. The purpose is to paint freely and have fun. This is a beginner video.