Wednesday of Va-kay

I sat in a little park enjoying my coffee and watching clouds.

Then I came home and painted, yup, my mailbox.

Then I watched/listened to James Gurney answering some questions live on You-Tube about Gouache while I did these:

I used Holbein Gouache, a set of Primary Magenta PR122, Primary Cyan PB15, and Primary Yellow PY3, 74 and three tubes I bought myself Flame Red PR9, Ultramarine Deep PB29 and Permanent Yellow Deep PY1. I used the same Primary White PW6 for both wheels. The black in the center is not the Primary Black PBk7 of the set but mixed of the three primary colors. The primary mix was easier than the colors I chose. That flame red is pushy!

Wednesday of Va-kay

Sunday Paint Day

Went out and took advantage of a bright cool day. That brings its own challenges of fast-drying paint but I soldiered on.

Sunday Paint Day

Friday Ends

Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.
— Barter, Sara Teasdale

The moment one gives a close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world unto itself.
— Henry Miller

Friday Ends

Past the Ides of August

I’ve been sending out a poem a day. None on Sunday, two on Monday. Every day a poem. Which is, for me, what August Poetry Postcard Fest is all about – the dailiness which gets you into the habit of sitting down and being ready for the muse.

Today though, I went out hoping to paint. It was brutally hot and humid. I stopped to look at the field of sunflowers I’d looked at last evening. Then I stopped to get some cut sunflowers and find out if that field was part of their plantings. Nope! So I will have to find out who, hoping to get permission to walk in and look at them from the other side.

Also seen: the purpose of a long-in-progress cement base and wood structure was revealed at the New Lebanon Town Park where a cupola now resides. No marker yet to say where it came from. Looks like great housing for bats!

Past the Ides of August

August, Must be Postcard Poetry Fest!

That’s a hard corner to turn, from World Watercolor Month to August Poetry Postcard Fest, but here we are day two already. Two postcards sent off already and FIVE!!!! already received!

Tonight I was pretty desperate to paint so I pulled off at Kristy’s Barn and spent time with the swallows watching the sun do its thing.

Here are all of tonight’s photos:

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Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.
— Henry Miller

August, Must be Postcard Poetry Fest!