Happy New Year - with a Bang

Not my bang - my daughter's bang. My day got off to a rocky start when I saw Regan's facebook posting that the taxi she and her husband took to a New Year's Eve party last night hit another car. She was thrown into the partition and had what she called minor injuries. Not the kind of thing a mother likes to hear about. My first thoughts were mother thoughts - was she wearing her seat belt? I'd bet money that answer is "no". I tried to call her. She didn't answer. She doesn't want to hear what her mother has to say. I understand - I don't want to hear what my mother has to say.....2009 was the year I first realized I am NOT my adult son's or daughter's friend. I'm just their mom.

My husband had to work today. I took down Christmas. I put Christmas neatly in waterproof plastic bins and tucked it away in the basement. I felt good about that. Last year I just tossed Christmas into the basement. Most of Christmas was just piled up on top of my art supplies on a table in the basement and stayed there until I brought it up to decorate in November.

Then I took inventory of the watercolor brushes and paints I have. I intend to start working a little on Sunday. I have 2 instruction books and one video that I plan to go through as practice/learning exercise.

I thought you might like to know who a few of my favorite watercolor artists are. I googled them - which I've done before - and found one of them has a blog on this very blog site. Carol Carter. Reading her blog completely depressed me. Steve Hanks paints the way I want to paint. I used to paint like that in college - in oils. Very realistic renderings. My art teachers at that time did not like realism in paintings. One in particular. Marvin. I wasted a lot of time in college. I didn't take advantage of the opportunity I had. I cut more classes than I attended. Preston Jackson was one of my instructors. I didn't like watercolors in college. I like them now. Thanks to Jane Mason. And a little community college class I took in 2007.

Anyway, my favorite artists have been painting their whole lives and earn their livings at it. I feel like I have so much catching-up to do and the fear that I won't have the time almost stops me in my tracks, here, now, before I even start. Crap! This kind of self negative talk has always been a barrier for me. Isn't this the year I DO NOT do what I've always done?

So, on I go....I'm painting on Sunday. I'll get a scanner. I'll take some photos. Maybe I'll share some here if I'm not too embarrassed. Tomorrow a trip to get some paints and a couple of brushes. Yee Haww!