paintandsimple

  
7″x5″ pastel on sanded paper

“Even when there is no rooster, morning will start” -African proverb

   
10″x8″ pastel 

10″x8″ oil on panel

Two studies, two mediums, three spring chickens.
 

  
14″X11″ pastel on sanded paper

“It’s the way you ride the trail that counts.” – Dale Evans

  
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.

  
10″ x 8″ oil on linen panel

Spring break 2016!  Pack up your sun hat, winter coat, and road trip snacks.  You get to come with me to the Southwest.  This year is a superbloom year in Death Valley, CA.  Who knew 1/4″ of rain could yield so much color?

  
Painting #1159

10″ x 8″ pastel on sanded paper

  
Painting #1158

10″ x 8″ pastel on sanded paper

“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow

Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead

Walk beside me… just be my friend” – Albert Camus

  
Painting #1157

  
Painting #1156

10″ x 8″ pastel on sanded paper

I wish I would have made notes about what they were looking at, their expressions are patient, perhaps expectant.

  
Painting #1155

10″x 8″ oil on panel

“Zzzzzzzzzip!”  If you are lucky, you know that noise, the sound of someone emerging from a tent into a brand new day.  This day was on the Incan Trail, the mountains were beautiful, the clouds were low, and we had a whole entire day to hike, to discover, to be.  That is the feeling I want to hang on to, because everyday (except possibly our last) we have a whole, entire day.  I don’t want to loose track of that feeling of excitement, and enter my day with less than a sense of wonder and enthusiasm.