Tag: travel

What Lies Ahead for 2024?

This past year I have focused a lot on painting and various media for art work. Watercolors, acrylics, portraiture in pencil, oil pastels, gouache, and probably a few others. I started my “Not Taken Vacation” series, which still needs to be completed, with pen and ink. Rewarding as this has been, and the gains I know I have made, I have also missed adventures in other areas. In 2024, I want to continue working on art work, as it is my first love, but other areas for creativity and exploration, have fallen to the wayside, and I miss them.

If I were to just list some of the things I missed doing and want to continue to do, I think I would begin to feel overwhelmed . . . but let’s see what a list will produce.

Sewing?

Knitting?

Gardening?

Photography?

Hiking?

Travel?

Reading?

Cooking and baking?

Exploring?

If I look at what I have been playing with to date, I am knitting, taking a few photos, and sewing. Most of my “reading” is really using an audiobook and listening to it while I knit. I have a number of sewing projects on hold because I have been lacking in time to focus, but that is really silly as I have everything in place and ready to go at the sewing table. I have a tabletop ironing board I can put on a countertop, so why not?

Being a Libra, indecisiveness is the norm. This? That? (Yes, laugh if you like at astrology, but sometimes it is too true!) Experience shows me that just starting something is usually all I need to get out of my slump, whatever form it may be taking and just 

On the Road to Somewhere

….via plane and ship!

In between everything and all the organizing and deciding and packing and griping and whining and worrying and daily stuff, I did manage to start a painting. It’s on a bit of 14×18 inch Fredrix canvas, taped to coroplast, and on the easel. It has been through multiple iterations since its inception, and still has a way to go. I will finish when we return, and I am sure I will see it all with fresh eyes.

This is not a great picture – a photograph rather than a scan – but it does show where it now stands. I thought a painting of a road and building might be fun to do. I still need to put in windows and work a bit on the middle area where the two pinky curvy bits of architecture are, as well as some of the leafy trees on the left. The photo makes it a bit askew, but the roof lines are actually straighter in the painting.

I usually work in watercolor, and that is usually a more immediate event than returning to a painting daily for a few hours. In fact, it is an altogether new experience for this impatient person, and I am finding I rather like the time I have to come and go with a painting. Having it on an easel to look at all the time is also a new experience. It let’s me look at it and review it from where I sit in the studio, typing away about it or other things. I wonder how this newfound taste and appreciation for time and painting will play out on our trip.

Golden Fluid Acrylics, 14×18 Fredrix canvas.

Watercolor Kit & Other Travel Toys

Heading out for an adventure of three weeks with only a carry-on suitcase and a back pack is forcing me to pretend I am an efficient traveler. The fact is, I am not, and it is very challenging to rethink what I want to have around me when traveling. For me, having enough clean underwear is important – but perhaps more so is not getting bored. I need stuff – to read, to paint, to draw, to listen, to make, to take photos. And this means making everything small and efficiently useful.

First on the agenda is my watercolor and drawing set up. In this 7×10 (or so) zip-up case by Art-Tool, I have their included Moleskine watercolor book, 12 half pan set of Schmincke watercolor paints still wrapped up, travel brushes, ink pens, mechanical pencil and lead, kneaded eraser, collapsible water cup, and a few other things. Many of them are original to the kit, but I have modified it a bit to meet my needs. It’s pretty nifty.

Next, books – audio and written. I like to hear things when I am sewing or knitting by hand. This means lightweight, small head phones and something to provide me with books. My phone can supply both! Another need / want conquered.

Camera . . . as someone used to the capabilities of a DSLR and such, a small automatic point and shoot without the option for controlling everything (should I desire such) was not something I wanted to spend money on. I spent weeks on research – I needed to be able to use manual controls all the way as well as my preferred aperture priority – and finally settled on the Canon G7X Mark II. As the Mark III had just come out, I got a good price on it, and have been using it for months. The battery life is good; I can put it a purse or pocket, and the pictures are good but flatter in appearance than either the X100V or the Nikons I like to use. Post production always remedies that.

We will be doing stops in various ports en route to our friends in the south of Spain. Looking ahead to Iceland, Ireland, and England, it appears to be cool but not cold, and with rain. Layers and a lightweight rain jacket that folds into a pouch are to be packed, but also more summery wear for the weather in the warmer areas. Luckily, we will have access to washing machines so a ton of clothing is not necessary.

I am going a bit nuts, but such is life. I have 3 days to finalize what I want to schlep, and then I drop into the abyss of international travel.

Collecting Little Things

I have been sewing prototype pockets for the kit car being made by Uncle Ed. It is the same one that Josh is making – the 818s. Ed is further along than Josh – retirement has its advantages – and is ready for some storage in the form of a side pocket for the car doors. Details are not necessary, but I plan to make another one today, slightly different, before going down to the Valley to visit him and Auntie Am tomorrow. I’ll maybe post something about the pocketses later.

All this has been a good break from my very unhappy watercolor painting of rocks. Frustration deserves a diversion from the frustrating thingies, so sewing was good. As well, I am really beginning to sort out stuff to take on our voyage, and one thing I am determined to bring is as little as possible, but plenty to keep me from wanting to scream with boredom and nothing to do with my hands. This means setting up a small watercolor kit with pan paints, brush(es), smallish watercolor sketchbook, and ink.

I finally decided on this small half-pan set from Schmincke – it includes a small travel brush, colors I am likely to use, and to which I could add more if I want, I think. I like Schmincke’s pan paints a lot as they are designed specifically for being in a pan, and this way, too, I don’t need to bring tubes with me. I will keep them wrapped up until I begin my voyage – no idea what crazy laws might prevent me from bringing them along.

Awhile ago I ordered these Etchr watercolor sketchbooks, and currently am using the largest for my adventures. I like these a lot, and so I am bringing the middle-sized one along with me. The paper handles both ink and watery colors well, is about 5×8 inches (A5?), and can easily be brought along.

A good mechanical pencil with extra lead is also a requirement, along with a kneaded eraser, some Pitt or Micron pens with permanent ink, a collapsible water cup, and plastic eye dropper or two for wetting the paints. I will most likely stuff them all in a large waterproof zip baggie or something like that, as should anything leak, some things may be spared. I expect I will be doing inked sketches with watercolor, like below, during the trip.

These kinds of sketches are easy enough to do, nothing to get too frustrated about, and bring back memories – as well as give my little hands something to avoid the devil’s attraction.

Packing for a trip is not easy for me – I am always worried about boredom, a lack of clean underwear, sweaty-smelling clothing, uncomfortable shoes. This trip is a real challenge for me as I am trying to be minimalist, yet still have enough for comfort, both mental and physical. Choosing what to bring is not easy – and trying to keep things small and convenient and useful and practical all at once is a huge challenge! I am collecting little things, bit by bit, surrendering to the need for saving space and weight, and rather enjoying the challenge.

A Tribute to Janus

I am at an age where looking forward shows little time left – I could be dead in a year for some reason! – and looking back makes me appreciate many of the people I have known and met, things I have done, adventures I have had. Making the best of time left is a major goal, and as Clint Eastwood said, “I wake up every morning and don’t let the old man in.” Let’s change it to “old lady” and take it from there.

I have lived in different parts of the country, mid-west, west coast, east coast, upstate New York. I have taken trips throughout the country, sailed in the British Virgin Islands, been stuck in airports overnight far too many times. Siblings live in Wisconsin and Colorado. Relatives are scattered throughout the country, many I have never met because of my immediate family moving every few months for several years, and we never went back to visit. It makes me sad in some ways, and feel empathy for my mother who was often home alone in a strange community with 4 kids to raise and a husband overseas in some mysterious place for many weeks or months at a time. It wasn’t easy for her, nor us, nor my father – connections that could have been were easily broken.

Sentiment is not something I “do” – broken ties mean just moving on to the next adventure. This is not necessarily a bad thing as being weighed down by the past can be a challenge, but it does bring a sense of disconnect from other people and a lack of willingness to risk a connection that can be severed. Loss is part of it, but there is expectation, too – what lies around the corner? New adventures await!

We are used to long road trips, taking several weeks to travel here and there. They are so fun – sometimes tiring – but there is a certain level of Zen that accompanies them. The time passes differently when confined to a car for hours. What is there to do? I often knit on a mindless project, daydream, chat with Josh, look at the landscape, snap crappy pictures out of the window. Country and towns flash by. Then we stop for 2 or 3 days in a town, explore it, and move on. There are a number of places we would like to visit again, and perhaps we shall.

In a couple of months, we will be taking our first trip overseas. We have been to Canada and Mexico, but in the fall we will be flying to Rekyavik and cruising to Barcelona. Stops on the way include Liverpool, Dublin, A Coruna, Lisbon, Porto, Malaga, Valencia, and then Barcelona. From there we travel to Almunecar to visit friends for a week. Then home.

While I look back on travels, I also look forward. New places to see, different cultures, good friends. This could be our first and last trip to the Old World, but one to certainly treasure and enjoy with memories and pictures and experiences.