44

Today I am 44.

I had a wonderful day.  

Dru and I went into Boston and she showed me many nice things, like Quincy Market.

We had official CHOWDA for lunch.  I had an official CHOWDA buff for several hours and basically turned into a Bostonian.

Why choose one when you can have 2??

There are cool buildings and a giraffe and a carousel and a labyrinth.

I did a painting.

It is 8x10 oil.

I would have liked 3 or 3 1/2 hours on this but I did not have that much time so I did it in an hour and a half.

And then there was a prismatic squirrel and the tea party museum and an ominous sinister building and some other stuff.

Dru has an actual dispenser for her white artist tape and if you scratch Emo’s butt in a certain spot he will lick the couch.

Today was a lovely birthday and I am very thankful.

Awesome Creepy Cemetery Trees

I am in Boston visiting Drusilla for the weekend.

The train ride up was really lovely.

I got to Dru’s in the late afternoon, still early enough to go to the lovely wonderful local cemetery and do a painting.

Dru is wonderful; she does not mind that I paint!

There were some really pretty orange trees and I was going to paint them.

But then I turned around and saw these absolutely wonderful creepy gnarly trees and we both decided they are way better than the pretty orange trees.

I rushed this painting, I was really fighting daylight.  

It took a little over an hour.

8x10 oil

Topiary Cats: Fearless

Drawing America is having a contest this month and the prizes are gift cards to Jerry’s.

I want art supply financing!

And I would like for paintings to pay for paintings.

The big prize is a $200 gift card and there is a guest artist judge who decides.

The theme is Fearless.

I did some topiary cats.

9x12 oil

Tuesday Drawing

I still think it’s Wednesday when drawing os on Tuesday.

Richard-Lael Lillard was our fabulous model again.

Graphite.

Abigail in Central Park

Abigail models sometimes for for figure drawing.

Today, she was hosting a free Bouguereau-style modeling session in Central Park, and she invited me.

It was a 3 hour session and I painted an 8x10.

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Abigsil knows a lot of art people and a lot of them are atelier people.

There was a person from Boldbrush.

All of them are really good artists, very technically proficient, professionals.

David Kassan even showed up…!!! But he didn’t paint.

I didn’t know anyone else there, though several knew each other and were friends, I guess from the professional atelier scene. It would be easy to feel intimidated in that crowd but…….. I’m glad to say I didn’t. I can hold my own.  Most of them treated the session like studio work, which I thought was interesting.

I would love to have the beautiful atelier-drawing skillset but I DO have the plein air skillset and in some ways that is more difficult.

The other thing I realized is that I’m really, really glad I’m not a 20-something anymore.

Several of the people there are a lot younger than me and…. Well, they are super-technically proficient but I don’t think any of them has had to fight to keep their art.  Hipsters, money, Bushwick, Ridgewood, a few years in NYC……. 

I’m proud of myself for being where I am in my journey and holding up artistically.  

It’s not all about how many instagram followers you have.

TMI Update

Yup.
5 days early.

That is both unusual and annoying but sure explains this past weekend..... I hate being so cliché but it really is a thing.  It is usually not so dramatic for me. Being a girl is hard.

If I had KNOWN that was the issue it sure would have made things easier.

Daya used to start right after me and she started on Friday and it was unusually bad for her--- so bad I was forced to pick her up from school midday despite my strong opposition to doing that........

Sheesh. Both of us.

Sunday

Can you believe I am still feeling angry today?

This is absolutely definitely an overblown reaction to something small.

Enough for me to seriously ask what's going on with me?

I'm ok, my life is ok, things are ok, what the heck???

I didn't know what to do with myself.

I briefly toyed with going back to the Met to sort out my energy but decided to give it more space since I don't want to be recognized going back in there.

I talked to Grace for a long time.

I thought about going for a swim, but I went yesterday morning and I washed my hair yesterday afternoon and didn't feel like doing that again today.

I wished kayak season was still open so I could go down and volunteer.

So... I was sitting around being mad and being mad about being mad not in the mind-frame to paint and...Bitz texted me.

She said come to the boathouse.

It's open.

Come paddle around.

Come be around nice people.

So I did.

And there was some work to be done too, like rescuing 2 buoys and taking plastic bags off others.

And I paddled and floated on the water and felt better even though this weird cloud hasn't cleared completely.

Pier 26 looks different without all the public boats out!

This is the "safety" boat and it's really not very safe and should be called the Unsafe Boat.

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This is complete TMI but I feel like I'm right about to start my cycle but that would make it almost a week early. It would explain my craziness, overreaction, and inability to shake this super-irked angry feeling.  This is also very unusual for me, I tend to not have dramatic cycles, or I know that's what's going on.  And I'm not ready to deal with the M word at all so don't even think abut it. I think ?? I'm still too young.

UGH... :(

Fuck the Met

Tonight I was supposed to meet Kedrin and Bitz at the Met, since they are open til 9.

I brought my sketching materials, which I have brought in many times before.

And security wouldn't let them in.

I ended up in a tiff with the security boss person, because their enforcement of a vague policy is arbitrary and haphazard and .... I don't know what got into me, I just got really mad.  Why is it ok one day and not ok the next? Just because of whoever is at the bag check table? Annoyingly to his credit the man was nice to me as I kind of lost it on him.  I think he probably really did believe me that I was telling the truth that i had the exact same materials in the museum several times before.  And I even showed him a picture. But he still wouldn't let my travel box of pastels in.

I have been specifically told by security before that any dry media is ok.

There is some vague buried sentence on the website about "pencils only"- which I never had seen before- and avtually security had trouble finding it when I asked for the written policy.

Anyhow I was too mad to enjoy the museum and I met Kedrin outside and apologized.

I just couldn't.

I don't know what got into me, why this angered me so much. I can't shake it.

I was mad about not being able to sketch, I was mad about missing a night with my friends which was my choice, I was mad about being mad. I was mad about how unfriendly the Met is to artists in general.

I was mad about their inconsistent policy. I was mad because as wonderful as the Met is, the institution itself is quite assaholic.

I was so mad tonight, and so out of character for me that I even checked to see when my cycle is starting!! 

Not in the next couple of days.....

But I feel terrible and angry and it sucks.

Oysters Forever

Caroline and I have been texting about happy hour oysters since covid lockdown.
It finally happened tonight!

I could eat oysters forever.

A night out in the west village was so perfect.... Caroline looked glamorous as always, and I have basically forgotten how to get dressed and I looked like it but...who cares!

Next time I'm wearing a dress though!

Sunny Furball

Here is Furball basking in the sun. :)

She is such a good cat.

8 Paintings

 I did 8 paintings over 4 days.
They are all 8x10 oil.

For the most part, each painting took between 2 and 2 1/2 hours.

Tuesday

#1

#2

Wednesday

At the reservoir

#3

This painting looks much better in person. (Actually they all do…)

#4

This painting took one hour.

Thursday

#5

This is the painting that Rusty messed up.

The actual painting looks slightly different to the location shot, but I think I fixed it to close enough.

This one is the weakest painting of the set, and was even before Rusty happened to it.

Friday

#6

#7

Same spot, I just turned around.

I also decided to leave the power lines out of this one, although having them in there would have made a slightly stronger composition.

#8

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All paintings in Cathy’s laundry room.

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My inner workhorse was definitely in high gear but more than that, doing all this painting cleared me out.

I was very tired- in a good way- after finishing number 8.

The other good thing about it was that I pushed beyond my normal boundaries. This is what happens with several paintings done in a short timeframe.  Because everything starts looking the same, more or less, you have to go beyond and start interpreting differently.  This started happening for me on Friday more than any other day. 

This is why quantity is so important. 

Will Weston spoke about that in one of his classes, too.

You have to exhaust what your mind already knows, and then you start to see new things.

This is why I was so intent on quantity this week, and I think it worked out well.

The first 4 paintings are thankfully dry enough this morning to pack in parchment for the ride home.

I leave Cathy’s in about an hour.

The Runaway Brush & Disaster

I am having a lovely time house-sitting.
I have been painting a lot. As of this evening I have 5 paintings.

Today I had planned to do 2, but only one happened.

Yesterday I walked to the reservoir and did a painting.

After I had packed up and was doing my last check, I saw my brush on the ground.

Phew, I was so glad I noticed it!!

This brush is not always in my plein air gear.  I have had it for a long time and actually it is one of my favorite brushes. And as I was packing to come here, it jumped out at me.  So I packed it. And I was so glad to not have lost it yesterday!

Today…… I almost lost it AGAIN!

The reservoir is a long walk and I stayed a little closer to home this morning. I did a painting in the woods.  Looked around, packed up, went home.  And a little voice in my head said to check for my brush.

I checked.

It was not with my other brushes.

It was nowhere.

I thought, it’s still in the woods.

I had to go back. Luckily it was only about a 20 minute walk and since i had stayed on the trail I was able to go right back to my spot… and there was my brush.

Once again, I was very happy to have it back.

I need to keep an eye on this brush! If I didn’t like it so much I would have just left it!

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Why only 1 painting happened today

This is not a fun story.

I got home wanting to rest, especially after going back for my brush.

Meant to feed the cats and go back out.

And then… Rusty happened.

I have been keeping my paintings in Cathy’s laundry room to dry, safe from cats.

This has been working well until today.

He jumped up on my fresh painting then walked ALL OVER MY OTHER ONES!

I had to clean the cat up and fix my paintings which took a while and I’m a little upset about it.

I think they are all ok and I hope my fixes to this morning’s painting are close to how it was.

The others are ok.

Rusty totally deserved that bath he got for messing up my paintings!

I think I got all the paint off him.

I moved them to the fireplace mantle, after checking with Cathy that no cats jump up there.

I really, really, REALLY need them to dry enough for transport by Saturday morning. 2 of them already were now I am back to square one.  I did put liquin in the paint so I think they will be tentatively ok.

I have  room for 4 wet panels in my box but right now I have 5 paintings and will be doing more tomorrow.  The plan was to have the first 2 or three touch dry.

Cathy comes home late tomorrow night.  I will post paintings all at the same time, hopefully tomorrow night.

So far though, this has been a good quiet week and I don’t miss social media or the news or any of it.

It’s nice to be alone in the woods and paint.