Returning to my passion of painting in the evenings.

Returning to my passion of painting in the evenings. 12/10/2009

I just spend, a very satisfying evening, walking with Reg and Indigo, dinner, then painting.

Before dinner, Reg and I walked along the Goulburn River at Shepparton. I took a few photos of mudlarks and magpies to add to the bird pictures of Ibis, black swans and ducks that i took at Lake Dorothy, yesterday. Reg was in a lot of pain but made a brave effort to walk with my encouragement. We returned home, had a delicious dinner of braised gravy beef and vegetables that I had prepared earlier in the day.

Straight after dinner, I began painting, using my watercolours and gouache paints on watercolour paper. I made three hands painted folded A5 size cards to try out the sort of artwork I can manage to paint on a shared caravan table. The result was better than I had expected, I was very pleased that I completed three of these little painting in one evening. It is 1 AM now so each card took me about two hours each to paint. I have large envelopes I can put with them and cellophane bags, just the right size for packing them.

Tomorrow I need to learn how to take print quality photos with my new camera, as these would be great as small business card size fridge magnets.

Painting took my mind off absolutely everything, just for a brief time. I loved it. This explains why I no longer paint large major artwork. With my husband ill, I cannot afford to lose myself totally in my work for long hours, I need to be aware these days of his needs. Yes, I would love to set up the oil paints and the huge canvasses and paint 16-hour days seven days a week with a passion, what artist would not? It is neither the time nor the place for that right now. This is why I put my painting aside for so long, it was hard to compromise and take a backward step. Tonight’s three miniature original artworks are only the second time I have painted all year, the first being last autumn when I painted a series of Clydesdale paintings.

It is time for me to head to bed now. Tired but happy and able to feel that these watercolour, gouache miniatures will not only be successful should I exhibit them but they are not a backward step artistically, I took pride in what I was doing and the feeling of satisfaction, the reason I paint, is there.