Month: April 2019

Across a Field of Flowers

I’ve had this painting on my easel for about a week.  There was a lot of thought put into it – an almost scary amount given my impatient, impetuous tendencies.  Sky and basic colors in pale shades.  From there, midtones, darker shades, and finally details.  The foreground was so challenging – the cone flowers want detail, but don’t want too much.  The orange ones are totally lacking in detail, and are just blobs of color.  And then the buildings . . . still some perspective issues, particularly in the house on the right, but better than anything I have done to date.  Dreams of summer now that spring is blooming here in California!

The First Day of Retirement

Well, what better day to retire than April Fool’s Day?  I thought it was a great idea, so at the end of January I submitted my paperwork, and today I get paid to do nothing related to work.  Social security, my pension, and Medicare are all lined up.  And now, my new life begins!

Today, I was taken out to lunch to celebrate!  I also have been deciding a “class” I want to take.  I’ve decided to study the exercises in a book on perspective for painters, so it covers not just the vanishing point varieties (one, two, and three dot), but also perspective based on colors.  Tomorrow, I begin!

Besides studying perspective, I have also been painting and drawing and sewing and making pictures with both digital and film cameras.  I finished my little quilt.  I’ve scanned photos and edited them.  I have been out to the local botanical garden and begun a sketchbook about the garden in spring.  Visiting family and friends and doing fun things is also part of the program . . . I don’t think I will be bored too often, but I might over extend myself.

Here are some things I’ve been doing . . . but no pictures of the quilt – that is a later post.