Category: Blitherings

Worthy of My Time and Attention

Retirement is hog heaven . . .

A friend of mine, Stef, said it took her about two years to “settle into herself” after retirement.  I believe it!

People wonder how you fill your day before you retire.  The truth is, you just do.  Sometimes you fill it with activities, and other days you sit down and do not a lot more than loll.  For me, being goal-oriented, I feel like I must accomplish something (what is that something??), but I also am quite capable of just doing nothing.  Rushing to do things takes away from time to listen to that inner voice of the self which provides insight, calm, and direction.  I know I need both.

Oddly, I find I need the company of others more than I used to as well!  At work, I always had someone in my face – a student, colleague, whatever – or something to be done – attendance, paperwork, class prep.  Now, there are me, my husband, and the dogs for regular company, which, at times, is not enough.  Given my desire for other people, I talk to friends and family, connect for lunch, go for hikes.  I am in a few Meetup groups and have one of my own, which has been dormant for about a year – time to resurrect it.

Now, I have things to do, places to go, and people to see.  Choices need to be made and sifted through daily as to the “agenda.”  I have some things I have settled into as routine – getting up, cleaning up myself and the dishes, editing a daily photo in black and white for my 365 Silent Project (missed it a few times).  At times there are appointments or pre-planned activities.  I want to paint or draw daily, but that has been a bit – haha – sketchy of late.  I like to watch about an hour of TV at night before going to bed.

The key word here is value.  What is valuable to me today?  What is worth my time and attention?  Retirement is an adventure that is shaking up a lot of my ideas and solidifying others – and it is fun and tedious at the same time.

 

Completed!

There are so many little things that need to be done for finalization of retirement!  I have a stack of paper and publications about 10″ deep.  So many things to read and to think about . . . but finally, the Social Security is arriving, the pension is arriving, and the supplemental insurance for Medicare is in place – I got my card today!  Pretty much everything I figured I would choose has worked out nicely.  The benefits manager in my school district has done a great job, too, not just for me, but many other retirees.  She brought in representatives from our medicare supplemental plan as well as an expert in such.  The ones available through the district are quite good.  The process, for me at least was easy – I just rolled over everything I had as an employee into my Medicare plan, as I had originally planned.

According to many sources, Americans are ill-prepared for retirement.  Most do not have pensions or savings or investments, and for many, their Social Security check is their primary and only source of income.  US News reports that the average Social Security benefit was $1,461 per month in January 2019. That is not a lot, at least in my neck of the woods.  I certainly couldn’t rent a 1-bedroom apartment for that!  Dave Ramsey has some interesting comments about how much people close to retirement have saved, the amount of debt they have, and how the lifetime pensions of 50 years ago no longer exist.  I consider myself fortunate in that I have both a pension and adequate Social Security, and enough to get a good supplemental plan as well.

Health care is a major cost factor for many people.  If you are healthy, you don’t really think about the fact you could get seriously ill or have an accident that changes your life.  In this country, it’s a travesty in many situations.  We are a capitalist society which means we are all commodities; however, we are commodities that are only good until broken.  In other words, disposable – just like much of what we buy.  Health care and support of those who are members of society is necessary to ensure future generations, and the generations who have contributed to society, prosper and thrive.  The stinginess of our politics about health care never ceases to amaze me.  Having worked in the industry for a lot of my adult life, I have been fortunate, but many others have not had the luxury.

Social programs benefit many people and help keep bigger problems from developing.  Child care, access to health care regardless as to income, education, fire and police, roads are some of the social program that benefit society – some we have, many we do not.  Our ideas are of the rugged individual, the person who “pulls himself up by his boot straps” are so fallacious.  We all depend on each other in many ways, but our historical fear of communism and socialism and worship of capitalism, along with our Wild West mentality that there is always something better over the next hill, prevents us from embracing our neighbors.  Too often these days it is all about ME, not you, not us.  A society as self-centered as ours is becoming is at peril of drowning in its egocentricity.

Sunday Morning

This morning I awoke to the sounds of birds and the rustle of leaves in the breeze.  The sunlight was dim through the windows, with hints of blue, presaging an incredible day.  Now the sun is up, and all that seemed promised is true.  New leaves are appearing on the tulip tree and the redbud; the birds are still singing.  Robert Browning wrote, “all’s right with the world.”  On mornings such as this, it is best to believe it, and so I shall.

So, what to do?  We are having family over for Sunday dinner, so there are things to be done around the house, a bit of shopping, a bit of cooking.  It is a simple thing to do – marinated lamb roast, salad, bread or rice or potatoes, tzatziki.  The company is to be enjoyed, and hopefully all invited will be able to join.

Life – and time to finally live it – is grand.  No more “return to work” dates; I choose what to do and when.  The Puritan side of me espouses “pain before pleasure,” meaning, get the unpleasant stuff out of the way ASAP!  That means chores, like cleaning.  I like clean things, but the cleaning process is not exciting – I’d rather be outside digging in the dirt or drawing or reading.  The satisfaction of a chore, to me, is when it is done.  Putting it off dulls the joy in other activities, but as I like an orderly and relatively clean house and studio, it makes sense.  Doing the unpleasant first makes the rest of the day move into infinity.

Yesterday I bought some plants -peppers, alyssum, dianthus.  Bulbs were on sale half price since it is past their season.  Potting soil, too.  Before I start the dinner shopping, but after housework, I shall begin work on my little front yard flower bed.  My gardener worked in some soil for me, and now I have some ideas as to what I am going to do with it.  Its a sunny – shady area as it faces west, with the house to the east.  Afternoons find it quite shady, and as summer comes along, I think it gets shady earlier.  Alyssum and dianthus will be along the outer borders of the plot – see below – bulbs sporadically distributed depending on their sun requirements – and the peppers will be placed in their own pots out on the sunny southern patio (aka “the dog-free zone” or the “DFZ”!)

Along with gardening, planning for my next painting is on the way.  I have been following various YouTube painters – as you have seen in earlier posts – but I have also been working my way through a book on perspective and contemplating spartan photography.  (Huh?  Wuzzat?)

And, Josh and I spent 3 days in San Diego, which was something wonderful to do – get away from it all to enjoy coming back to it all!

 

Atmospheric Perspective, i

Day 5 into retirement found me with finally enough time to sit down and start my “class” on perspective.  No, not a classroom setting, but rather following the exercises in a book.

The book is The Art of Perspective:  The Ultimate Guide for Artists in Every Medium, by Phil Metzger.  As an individual, I found no web pages authored by him, but I did find numerous books which get good reviews.  I picked this book up because it dealt with not only the traditional perspective found in drawing and architecture, but the perspective produced by color.  As someone working in watercolor – or anyone working in any medium – color and how to use it is so important.

Atomsopheric Perspective has a few rather obvious points.  Metzger says “paint what you see”.  This is sound advice.  The reason it is sound because the natural world is out there.  You actually see atmospheric perspective.  What this means is:

  • colors become more blue the further they are from the viewer.  Mountains are cooler.
  • Bright foliage can create brilliant swaths of color, even at a distance, so this belies the idea of “things become cooler with distance.”  They do have less detail with distance.
  • Things are simpler the further away they are – this makes sense of course!
  • Air pollution of cities makes for browner (perhaps) distances rather than bluer.  What is important here is to note that edges become more soft and colors, while still colorful, begin to fade.  White buildings become greyer unless a brilliant flash of sun is on the building.
  • At times, hills will appear darker than the ones in front or behind them – this could be caused by a cloud passing overhead.
  • Fog softens the landscape or the cityscape.

Exercises

I decided to do a number of paintings.  Actually, I figured I would just do the first exercise, on trees, called “Receding Woods” on pages 18-19.  This is it below.  I followed Metzger’s steps – pale wash, distant trees, mid-ground trees, stream, shadows, details.  This is the result.

I found this to be a frustrating and useful exercise.  I used the palette he suggested:  Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Sienna, Pale Cadmium Yellow.  Drop the colors onto wet paper, and move on.  Next step were the pale trees in the background – light blues and browns.  From there, darker blue trees to suggest shapes.  Mid-ground trees brought in some detail.  Finally, the frozen creek and shadows.  As a wonderful piece of art, I am not impressed with what I did – but I am impressed with the clarity of Metzger’s writing and example.

From this, I decided to go to Pixabay and search for things like fog, barns, marsh, swamp.   The next study is a marshland.  I figured it would be good for water, reflections, and distant mountains.

What I liked especially about the picture was the haze at the base of the mountains and the blurred quality of the green hill.  In the photo, it was less distinct.  From there, I tried to paint the values I saw, so the distant water was a midtone, the middle water dark, and the closest the most pale.  I also made the mountains more blue and violet and tried to use warmer colors the closer to the bottom of the page I got.  It worked to a degree in varied areas, and not in others.  Still, having 3 different values of water was rather interesting.

Her is a study on distance and fog.  The image was mostly green and yellow in cast,  The sun is peeking between the two center trees.  The tree shapes show lighter in the painting, as the do in the photo, but I think I could have done a better job with the sky to emphasize this point.  To show distance, I tried to make the further objects more simple and cooler, while working at a bit of detail and warmer values for those closer to the viewer.  Perspective was indicated by the road narrowing and the curve of the furrowed field.

This picture was a challenge!  Me, paint a bridge??!!

Anyway, a bridge is disappearing into a fog bank; a sail boat sails through the shadow cast by the bridge.  The distant bridge vanishes into a thick, white cloud.  Detail softens and vanishes.  On top of it all, this is a bridge!  (I don’t think I would want to drive across it if it were really were in the condition represented by my painting!)  Once more, cooler colors and less detail the further from the viewer; more detail closer to the viewer.  I liked mixing the blues for the water and found out that a rigger brush and a flat brush were my best friends for the bridge.  I like this painting a lot more now that I finished it – not a work of art, but a good practice study.

This final painting was a serious challenge.  The paper I was using for all of these is student grade, so washes are tricky and often become hard edged or have blooms.  I solved a lot of those problems by scumbling along the edges; this was good for softening, blending, and blurring the edges.  I also used a 1-inch flat brush for the majority of the painting, forming the blurry vegetation, to the barn, to the road.  Only when I added detail did I use a small brush, specifically a rigger.  While I don’t think this painting has great perspective, the goal of atmospheric perspective was met.  I used to the left and right of the barn, as well as with the weed patch on the lower right.

Some Thoughts

As a first exercise for my “class” I really enjoyed myself!  I started painting at 9:30 in the morning and only finished around 5:00 pm – time to make dinner.  I focused on the atmospheric perspective idea and learned a lot simply by doing.  Sure, I know this basic information, but to put it into practice and think about it is a lot different.  Experience in the real world is, in my opinion, one of the best teachers, and such studies are invaluable.

 

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.