Wow, I just looked at my last post date and was shocked! Where did all that time go? I just read this morning one of my all-time favorite newsletters, Painters' Keys, by Robert Genn, in which he talked about "seizing the day." It was a timely and important letter for me, and I hope -- and expect -- I will seize the day more often than I have been doing for the past month. Of course, life does get in the way - again - but I feel that if I don't paint at least a little every day, I start to lose those "painting brain muscles" and have to build them up again before I can get going at a comfortable pace. By the way, here's the link to Genn's newsletter if you're interested: http://clicks.robertgenn.com/seizing-the-day.php. I very highly recommend it; I've been reading it for years now and find it interesting, inspirational, enjoyable, sometimes very funny, etc., etc.
I don't know if I've listed all the custom paintings I finished around Holiday time; but if I didn't, I'll try to get them listed in the next few days. I'm afraid they were all I was doing at that time -- well, that and endlessly it seems hosting various family members who were here, no kidding, for over month. (Note to said family members: Yes, I loooooooved your visits and wouldn't trade them for anything, but obviously I didn't work while you were around because I wanted to spend all my time with you!)
So I'm back and re-flexing my painting part of my brain again. I tried, by the way, a landscape a couple of weeks ago and it was a lot harder than I was expecting it to be. But, darn it, I am going to conquer landscapes if for no other reason that they're not dog or animal paintings and I sometimes need a break from painting my beloved animals.
Speaking of animals, I sadly must note, too, that we lost one of our boys around mid December. It was Henry Higgins, our shih tzu. On the good side, he lived a very long, happy life; we should all be so lucky as he was. We miss him terribly, though, in spite of his advanced age at death. In fact, this is the first time I've even been able to talk about him at all. He was so cute and made us laugh very often. He was also the laziest dog I've ever had in my life. No kidding, we had to poke him sometimes in his later years to see if he was still breathing. He raised the fine art of relaxing to unheard-of astronomically high levels; he was a master relaxer! May you rest in peace, Higgy.
