Workshop. Woohoo!

Yesterday I took a day off from my gallery duties so I could attend a workshop with one of my favorite painters. This is the demo painting he did. He knows his stuff! Abstract watercolors. And he is one of the artists in the gallery. Lucky me. 

I painted something

 A week from today I am going to take a class from a very good watercolorist who has his art in my gallery. So I will be ready for the day, I brought some paints to the gallery to warm up and practice, since it has been so long. After playing, I painted three little things, then cut to 5x5ish to fit in some batch frames that have been taking up space in my garage. I gave away two of them, and the third went in the trash. This one went to my bookkeeper when she visited today. I appreciate her so much, and today I appreciate her even more for taking it off my hands. The other one went to the neighbor who was painting with me. It felt good. 

Pigeons going for the leftovers

 

Summer

A beautiful, pink blooming crepe myrtle against a blue sky. 

Cave swallows

A month or so ago lots of birds were excitedly flying back and forth in the covered entrance to the apartments by the gallery. I found they were building a nest and starting a new family. All the birds took part! I took some pix, identified them as cave swallows, and enjoyed learning about them. Now the babies are growing and will soon be out on their own. These pix are the best I could get.

A pretty display of leaves and white flowers.

 

My Studio

Back in Greenville, when much of my free time at home was spent in the back yard studying nature ala Thoreau and looking for tiny interesting things to photograph, I considered that special place to be my studio. Apparently since jumping into the painting wedge of the art circle in Wilmington, I have abandoned the concept of anything other than an actual room to be a studio. During the past week, my gallery and I hosted a plein air event. For strictly plein air painters who paint nature in nature, the outside world where most of their painting is done is their primary studio. 

I have not been posting to this blog because I don't paint much, and I had in mind it would be about painting. However, I consider painting to be a frustrating task put upon me by other people who expect me to paint. And I am not into show and tell. Some folks I know, many of whom are or have been art/painting teachers, immediately want to give feedback or correction upon glancing at an image of some sort, of anyone's, when they are not asked. As I am an emotionally secure person, I endure it kindly when I am the recipient of their knowledge, but it has taught me to appreciate and validate where other people are on their journey. After all, doing arty things should be therapeutic and pleasurable. It isn't life or death. 

So back to square one. Rather than neglecting this blog, I will use it to post something, anything, that I may see in the greater studio of my little world, especially around the Cape Fear River, for as long as I am here in the gallery. Seems like when I go out, there is always something interesting! 

Today along the river, a big cargo ship was either coming or going. I am curious about them, like where they are from, what they carry, if drugs are aboard, who works on the ship and what do they do, how it would be to travel on the high seas and then wind down a comparably narrow river to a port. The stories they could tell!