Fun with Photos

I found a nice surprise waiting in my email inbox when I returned from the EAF board meeting---Bee, a wonderful lady I met at ArtFest, wrote and told me she'd put my name forward to join a photo art journal group. I checked out the three upcoming books and the themes for each and decided that I should join immediately. I think this will be great fun. If my experience with the ATC book from ArtFest is any indication, they well be amazing books. The first book's theme is "Enter Here". Besides the photo pertaining in some way to the theme, each participant is to include "a quotation, a poem, an extract from a book or your own writing, connected to and inspired by the theme." My head is already reeling with ideas for the first submission. It must be off by April 30th. I have no firm idea yet of what I'll send. Something to think about while I weed the garden tomorrow.

Finally varnished my latest portrait. It looks pretty good. I really enjoyed the physical act of painting it---building up the layers of color was like dancing. I felt free and very easy in my skin. I guess I was really 'in the groove' that day. It did take some further days of glazing to get it to where I was satisfied, but I did the majority of the painting the first day in class at Anna's. I love oil paints! Having now copied two of Xenia Hausner's portraits, I think I am (almost) ready to strike off on my own and try my hand at something original. I could go back to the portrait of Emma I started last fall and got stuck on, or I might try the beach scene I did the little oil study for. Either of those might be fun. Or maybe something new? So many ideas.

I find myself thinking that I just don't have time for this, but the truth is, I have to maketime to paint. I am never going to have the time if I don't just make painting a priority. Inertia is so hard to overcome. The fact that my easel is set up and I have all these lovely brushes I bought with my birday check, trays of beautiful Gamblin oils just waiting to be used and even blank canvas should be irrestible. It is just so hard to get started. There is always something else that "has" to be done, something else I be doing. Now it's time to just paint---paint each day for a little while, or a long while if I can manage. No more excuses. No more inertia. It's time to paint.

I don't want to be an art wannabe. I want to be making art.