looking back to move forward

Suddenly it is fall. The foggy mornings are good for focusing on art but it is hard to get started after months of leisure. Yesterday I cleaned house all day, storing away the clutter from a casual summer. The laundry is done, plants are in the garage for the winter, and the house is organized. To the Studio…

I want to check email, pay bills, balance the checkbook, and look at future call-for-entries, as has been my summer routine. Instead, I turn the overhead lights off, light the fire and with mocha in hand, settle into the rocking chair by lamplight. Opening my art journal, I turn to the pages of last year at this time. I see sketches for the studio arrangement at the “barn” we built on our retirement property. Since then, our plans have changed; we want to be closer to our grandchildren in Seattle. There are quotes and revelations from Dan McCaw’s "A Proven Strategy for Creating Great Art" and Richard Schmid’s "Alla Prima." Notes and photos from several pastel paintings I was reworking. Thumbnail sketches, value studies, composition possibilities. I am reminded how exciting it was to consider oil painting. Around Valentine’s Day I posted my first oil and wondered if it would ever dry. Many little oil still life paintings followed. Then, summer – ending with a trip to Canada and a four day eat-a-thon cruise.

There is a need in an artist that can only be filled with creating. Now, most mornings I hope to be in my rocking chair reading about art and then to the easel for pastel or oil. Wishing everyone a creative last quarter of 2008.