Back to Yoga

Today I went back to yoga for the first time since......... March 2020.........

I do not know how 4 years passed.

I have been meaning to get back for the last 2 years or so, and .... I don't know, even though I knew I needed to go back, and also wanted to, there was something about it that I must have been avoiding.

A sadness, maybe.

A recollection of lockdown.

There has been a lot of change there.

In order to stay afloat, Lavender and Lotus on the second floor have been rented out.

The pictures that were hanging for literally decades on the second floor are gone.

It may sound strange but Integral Yoga Institute connects the dots in my life.

I don't know how else to put it.

It's very strange and weird but there you have it.

There is something about the building itself.

I have gone there since prenatal yoga in 2005.

Tonight I went back.

My old teacher is not there anymore and.... I really miss her.

Her class was amazing. It went beyond a typical yoga class.

I have emailed her to see if she is ok post-pandemic but haven't heard back.

I hope she is ok.

Class was ok, I am a little rusty but muscle memory does kick in.

It felt good.

I did a fairly advanced yoga class regularly for YEARS and even after the long hiatus, I still did just fine.

The teacher tonight isn't my favorite though, so I need to find a different class/teacher I like.

It was sad and strange to be back.

So much change layered with things that have been the same for decades.

I will go back, and it will be easier now after being back this first time.

I do feel sad and strange and melancholy, but I also needed to go back and reconnect a dot post-pandemic.

I have to say this somewhere........

 ....... in some ways, my kid is just like me...........

Of course I can never tell her that.

Anyone who knows me knows I drink a stupid amount of tea.

Black and herbal.

After my morning black tea I just switch right over to many various herbal teas and drink that all day every day.

When Daya was younger she wanted nothing to do with my teas.

These days, however, she's as hooked as I am.

When she gets home at night, she makes tea:

Yes, those are 2 large cups each with  3-4 tea bags in them.

I don't even do that......

She's worse than I am!

We go through massive amounts of tea in this household.

Gansevoort Geese

Today was a good day to go out and pain, even if it was a bit chilly.

I am definitely prepared for chilly.

Today I decided to check out painting spots at the new Gansevoort Beach.
I have only been here once on a kayak trip.

There were geese.

They honked a lot.

I had to paint them.

8x10 oil

Today was one of those lighting situations where everything looked one way when I started but was completely different about halfway in.

When this happens (it almost always does) I usually go with how everything started, unless there is a good reason to change it.

This is the dreadful log flume kayak landing.

It's actually kind of fun to be able to view it from that perspective and experience.

Geese

Medieval Bees

Here is the last painting in my medieval animals series (for now)... the show hanging is soon and I really had to finish tonight.

5x7 egg tempera and metal leaf

Pebbles..... hindered.

Pigment palette

Oh Pebbles!

On Tuesday Pebbles had her 6 month checkup.

It's not a big deal, just something I have to do for her Atenolol refill.

She's fine except she lost 1/4 lb since August, which was bad news.
She's a very little cat and despite my efforts, will not gain weight.

Every time she goes to the vet she has lost a little more.

I have been very intentionally trying to bulk her up but I guess it isn't working.

So............... bloodwork.

I was not planning on bloodwork, and it has gotten stupid-expensive.

Everything about the vet has skyrocketed.

It's really bad.

As it turns out, aside from kidney levels in the high range of normal- and they are still in normal range--- she's fine. The vet says try rx food and that's expensive too.

So, once again Pebbles did what she does best gives me a fright that is VERY expensive and turns out to be nothing wrong.

I have dropped an unexpected $700 on the cat.

The vet recommended the renal diet dry food (Royal Canin) and it's very high calorie so hopefully she won't lose more weight. She does like it so that's good.

Pebbles got over the vet visit pretty fast.

Here she is at her favorite past time, sitting on the paper shredder yelling at me.

Green Pigments, Green Cheese, Green Oil

I have 6 egg tempera paintings in a show that opens Monday March 4th.

It's very exciting.

Today is a holiday (not for Daya though) and I needed to go to Blick for a mounting board and a couple other show-related items.

Blick is not too far from Kremer and I thought I'd go there first to see what's going on, and to have a look at their metallic and pearlescent set to make sure I don't need it.

Sadly (and thankfully), I don't.

There are too many colors in it that are just too similar.

I did need a silver-ish pigment though. And some more glass bottles.

The silver is a bit expensive but will last for a long time.

I also got 2 other pigments which are both very cheap...

The Kremer Studio Sky Blue is a very useful color.

I have several of their other studio pigments- they are ok, they have a filler in them and are very transparent so they are very inexpensive. This is a color I find myself using a lot of and tempera is transparent layers anyhow.

And I finally got a bag of my favorite terre verte, Nicosia Green Earth, because I'm obsessed.

It is also a really cheap pigment... possibly my favorite color that isn't expensive. Unlike all my favorite cobalts...

I REALLY want Viridian but it's just too expensive, it's about $35/bag. 

I can't justify it.

These pigments come in bags but I transferred them to jars because the bags are annoying to deal with.

**********

On the way down to Blick I passed by Fairway and thought, "I wonder if just maybe... they might have my cheese."

I have never found it there before but since it was a nice day and I was right there, I went in and...

they DID, in fact, have my cheese!!

This is Sage Derby.

The first time I had it was in 2020 at the very last office event I ever attended at the Times Square office, right before covid hit.

We were wondering, what is that strange gem-like green cheese?

Turns out, it's wonderful.

I have been looking for it ever since, and have only found it one time at an upscale grocery store in my neighborhood, surprisingly. Fairway has never had it (when I have looked) and if they don't, probably no one else does.

Today they had my cheese.

What a nice surprise.

**********

On to Blick, for a very short list of show-related items.

I found them all...and I needed a refill of black oil paint.

I could not believe it, look at this sale:

I thought it was too good to be true, seriously.

These prices on series 4-6 are AMAZING.

I am almost out of cad yellow light so I got some.

And 3 cobalts and viridian.

Amazing.

Snow Behind The Met

We got more snow- not much but enough to make painting in it necessary.

I was originally going to go to Pinetum but ended up behind The Met instead... which is on the way to Pinetum.

My feet did not get cold! Those winter coat things for my boots really work!

It was just above freezing- 34 degrees or around there.

Yes I was a little disappointed it wasn't subzero but it's still a big win that my feet didn't get cold.

8x10 oil

The sun only started to come out at the end of the painting- it was a grey snowy morning

Medieval Pretzel-Neck Creature

You know, I thought these medieval creatures would be chill and easy and... they are INTENSE, as it turns out!

But 3 of 4 is done...!!

I have to have them all ready for our class show which opens on March 4th.

I'll have 6 paintings in the show and I'm VERY excited about it!

So much work to do....

Pretzel-Neck Creature
Adapted from reference-1300s, England
5x7 Egg Tempera and metal leaf
__PRESENT

SNOW!!

I'm so happy it's SNOWING!

Even though it is Tuesday and I cannot paint because I have to work...!!!

SNOW!!

Bizarre Timing

I had my monthly overnight shift at the hotline.

I got in a little early.

Checked in.

Previous shift had all lines occupied.

They said it was REALLY busy.

All normal.

We chatted. Such great people there.

Previous shift left.

Yes I was alone, which is actually really nice.

I took a cue from how another volunteer handles the overnight and turned the lights down to be all cozy.

I was caffeinated, ready for calls, and feeling good.

I put the lines on.

Had my sketchbook and some watercolors, just in case of the unlikely event I had time to pass.

Huh, it was quiet! Weird!

So I sketched.

Put some paint down.

Weird, no calls!

Triple checked the lines were on- yes.

Ok then.

Kept sketching.

About 45 minutes later I thought- ok this is REALLY weird.

It's so not-normal I should tell my shift supervisor.

So I picked up the phone to call them and was met with a BLAST of static.

OMG!!

Thank goodness for cell phones!!

The whole phone system went down.

We went through a reboot procedure.

It did not work.

We all gave up at about 1:30am.

The timing was SO weird- somehow the whole phone system went down in the 20 minutes between when the last shift ended and when I turned on the lines for my shift.

I was scared- irrationally so- that I did something.

This is something to think about- that I blame myself for doing something wrong even when it is literally impossible.

But all I did was turn off a few lights, which could not in any was possibly affect the phones.

The timing was so strange!

So I ended up leaving the lines on and going to sleep for the rest of the shift.

Not 

*******

As it turned out, construction in the area knocked out many, many landlines.

It was just sheer coincidence that the timing was right at the start of my shift!!

A Medieval Civet

The reference for this medieval creature was taken from The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries, the "Taste" one.

I had to look this creature up to confirm its identity.

5x7 egg tempera and metal leaf

The experiment on this one was using pastel turned back to dust with the ADORABLE Derwent grater.

It worked.

I also did this for Snailchicken, with some Unison violet in the background.

All the turquoise was based on my favorite Sennelier 722 (the mystery pastel from a while back).

It worked well.

It's actually nice to be able to stretch the usefulness of my stupid pastel collection to egg tempera- though it should be known that when mixed with egg, the pastel dust does turn darker.

Pastel is still the most direct accurate way to apply pigment in its unaltered state.

__PRESENT

Pedestrian Bridge at E 63rd St

I found a new and interesting spot today- I'm always looking for those- there is a pedestrian bridge at E 63rd St so that's where I painted.

The bridge is kind of messed up in my painting..... it was painted last and I did get a bit cold....

8x10 oil

The midday sun was brutal.

Thank goodness I had an extra panel in my box to somewhat get the glare off.

I took a picture of this because these first three lines are the most important part of the painting.

This is the composition stage.

Three simple lines that look like nothing and a LOT of thought went into them, and some erasing and re-doing.

Where is the horizon?

How much sky in relation to water? (More sky? More water? I chose water.)

And the MOST important thing.... never make any 2 intervals the same.

A Bad Drawing

I went back to the Met after work tonight to have a relaxing evening of sketching.
With charcoal, again.

I found a nice secluded spot back in one of the Greco-Roman galleries, with a moon goddess bust.

This is not a good drawing and I don't care.

It doesn't matter because 1) I showed up which in itself is amazing and 2) it's just practice and 3) who cares.

One of the really important things about being good at anything is failure.

Not everything has to be good.

I also finished at 8:52 and the Met closes at 9.

So I had to get out of there.

I would like to go back for a second attempt, maybe in graphite.

Please note the (rather brilliant if I do say so) kneaded eraser "cage" around my tools.

She really is beautiful; I do need to go back.

More pictures: