Feed Your Heart

I never feel as if I'm "caught up".  I'm not even sure what that means.  But I do know there are plenty of nights I lay in bed wishing I would have chosen to paint instead of folding yet another load of laundry.  I seem to always put the household chores and demands of inanimate objects like dishes, clothing, lawns and floors before my own needs.   And, if I do that for too many days in a row I become a very unpleasant person and I hear my dear southern husband say, "You need to sweeten your tone."

Why is it that I feel the need to get everything completed, tied up, or even perfect before I take care of me, be it exercise, art, or even healthy cooking.  I don't know where the "me last" mentality came from.  But I think it's very common if not a natural state for many people.  

I've come to realize that doing something for myself makes me a better human being.  Sure I would love for the house to be in perfect order before I took the time to work on a watercolor painting, but the reality is that if I wait for order I would never paint.  One of the best parts about being a human is our ability to create. I'm getting better at walking away from the chore at hand to make sure I take time to feed my heart/my soul/ my creative spirit.  And when I return to the chaos, I seem to handle life and it's demands much better.

I encourage you to feed yourheart today in spite of the clutter that may surround you --
Play that instrument. Dip that paint brush. Write that poem..  

Ranunculas... again

Well, what do you expect...  if you love a flower you can never paint them enough.  The season for ranunculas is long gone.  I never seem to get enough of them though.  I did this mixed media early this spring it includes watercolors (of course), Chinese Sumi ink and Conte crayons. (You can learn more about the painting here.)   I had to post something happy because I lost my sketch book on my flight last week.  I've been looking for it over the weekend and finally had to just face the fact that I left it on the plane.  It must have fallen out of my bag.  I called the airline this afternoon to see if they've found it.  I'm crossing my fingers.  It's not that the art is extraordinary in these little journals.  It's just they go with me everywhere and I collect quotes and ideas and I love doing little watercolor paintings in them.  Some of which I share with the blogging community like this one or this one.  Over the years I have accumulated 22 sketchbooks and this if the first one I've lost.  Oh POOO!!!!   If you found a painter's sketchbook would you keep it?

Spring and her flowers

I wish these ranuculas were popping out of my own garden - but instead they're popping out of the shelves at Trader Joe's and that's good enough for me. So here is a couple of my watercolors. I love the orangy-yellow colors. So the exercise was to keep as much white on the paper and to work fairly quickly. I know that the watercolors I am drawn to are "loose" and that's what true watercolor is - letting the water work and the white of the paper show through.

Orange Ranunculus - All Day!

Ranunculus are back!!! And that always makes me happy until I paint them ... ALL DAY . Then they become pesky little buggers. Still it was good to have the time to work on something for more than an hour. I wasn't pleased with the oranges I was making (No I don't own a tube or orange paint - I mix my oranges). Finally I took a break from them and decided that that I needed to look at them with fresh eyes. The whole fresh eyes thing is essential. What really is happening is that you're looking at it with a fresh mind which is a less critical mind - a kinder, gentler mind. And you thought movie critics were tough - you should here the critic in my head! So here you have an afternoon of work... and I'll go at it again the next day. But don't worry I'll always love ranunculus.