6″x24″ pastel on sanded board SOLD

I am teaching painting at Ghost Ranch, and this was in last week’s show.  Someone who works at the Ranch told me how much they enjoyed the show.  To her, this painting was a prayer of gratitude. She was so moved she had to leave the show.

That of course, gave me pause.  Was it?  I try to live my life from a disposition of gratitude…could that come through in a painting?  I made a quick list, a habit started long ago when my boys were young, my days were long, and dinner seemed like a hard thing to get through.  We would make “grateful lists” and leave them on the table for my husband to see when he got home from long nights at the hospital.  “Grateful lists” made dinner (and everything else) easier.

I am grateful:

• To be at the ranch
• For my family, especially my 4 kids
• To my husband for doing my job and his for two weeks
• For having such great students
• For the change in weather, from freezing wind – to perfect
• For a beautiful picnic and plein air day at the monastery
• For all the delicious food made in the dining hall
• For a breathtaking sunset
• For the feeling I had as my students watched me paint this, with all the appropriate oooos and ahhhhhs when I added key accents
• …….

My heart is full, and perhaps the colored dust held that feeling, or perhaps the suggestion was just enough to redirect me to who I am meant to be, either way…

I am grateful.