Saturday, June 25, 2016

Priorities

What are your priorities?  Family?  Work?   Painting flags on garage doors or building habitats for skunks?   Whatever it is, that is what you need to keep energy and time for.   Its soooo easy to get bogged down with a million other things that seem important.

That's what happened to me this summer.   I thought I wanted to raise some meat goats along with my dairies.   I got a few, who had kids, then I had lots!    And little by little, that took more time than I realized, til one day, I looked up and realized I hadn't rode a horse or done any, ANY?, artwork for over 2, maybe even 3 full weeks, and my garden was a mess.

Um, NO.   this had to stop.   So, I called a goat person who bought my herd, and kept my 2 sweet milking does.   Now chores take 20 minutes or less!  

Its worth your time to think about what is your focus.  Not what is your husband's, kids', or neighbors, what makes YOU happy?   What is it that makes your heart flutter?   Go do that stuff!  

I kinda felt like I was giving up when I seen my herd get on her trailer.  For about 2 minutes.   Then I seen what I did give up--fencing, trimming, feeding, etc.....and I gained time.   Time that you can't get back.   I'm happy I got to try my hand at the meat goat thing, but even more happy its gone now.   Copper, maybe he's not so happy about it tho!


Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Summer Solstice

It's Summer Solstice time.   Seems early this year, but so does everything else!   We had some serious rainfall earlier this year, and many areas still have more water sitting than usual, including us.    

In front of my 
house, there is a low spot, and it was so overflowing, we now had lakefront property!    I was walking my dogs and as the sun set, my really-big-puddle turned magical.   The colors were like sherbert, and the 'pond' was still and almost like a mirror; except where some bug made a ripple.   

I thought for a split second to grab my gear and do a sketch, but the skeeters were so hangry that a few photos would have to do.  

This needed to be bigger for what I had in mind, and I cut a piece of Uart600 and set to just do an underpainting before bed.  

I wanted to try a very 'hot' underpainting as I knew I was doing lots of cooler colors on top.   So I laid in hot oranges, reds, and golds.   I planned to take a photo and go to bed.   Wellll....didn't happen.   I was itching to do this painting for weeks, and thought since the top area was dry already, I'd just try a couple spots.  

Several hours later, I went to bed, almost done.  A few tweaks the next day and I present to you "Summer Solstice", 20x32   

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Wash Day

This blog title is both for my painting and my reality!   Nothing better than fresh sheets off the line for a good night's rest.    I had this painting 'done' months ago, but something wasn't actually done enough for me.   It seemed a bit void and I felt adding a bit more of a human touch would be useful.

   So yesterday I got it back to the easel, and decided to add the wash line and the chimney with some smoke.   I also toned the barn down from a bright red to a more weathered hue;  that pushed the viewer more to the house, and was a bit more realistic.   I am again going to call it done.  We'll see if it stays that way!
"Wash Day"   11x16 pastel on uart500