So far so good....

I “worked” four hours today. Four hours was the time I had allotted for today. After Jon left for work I set up on the dining room table. I started with some exercises of creating hue and value tables with my paints. This took me about 2 hours. I made myself take a 30 minute break, and then I started working on one of the “Ready to Paint IRELAND Watercolor” pages. I’d done the tracing yesterday so I was ready to begin with paint. I worked on it for a while then at 2:00, when my four hours was up, I left it. I picked that book because I've been to Ireland 5 times in the last 10 years and have hundreds of photos I took there. I have intentions of turning a number of my photos into paintings some day.

I felt good about my day's accomplishments. But I also spent some time flipping through back issues of “Watercolor” magazines. Came upon Ali Cavanaugh again. The pages with her paintings had caught my attention before, but I kind of forgot about them. This time I made note of her. I’m so jealous. They are really marvelous works.

And it just makes me feel, again, like I have so much catching up to do that I may never be able to get where I want to go. I’m lucky that my husband is very supportive. He's been telling me for years to quit my job and start painting. I wasn't willing to take the risk. But now I have stayed long enough to have earned that precious retirement check! Jon tells me constantly it is not too late. “You are alive. As long as you are alive you can do this.” Or words to that effect.

Actually, I briefly studied a photographer during my community college photography classes – and when I find her name again I’ll let you know – who had a very brief career which she started around 50. She was quite successful. I read another article in the back issues about Harald Aksdal, who retired and began his career at 56. Of course, he’d been working as an architect, so he was used to drawing.

Art aside, I have another challenge in 2010; the challenge of getting into a size 8. I won’t talk about pounds, but size. I know the weight I’d have to be to get into an 8. This could well take me the whole year. I’m hopeful that, once I’ve reached that goal, I can stop taking blood pressure meds and won’t be at risk for things like diabetes and stroke. As I said, I was always completely healthy and active until I hit 50. Yikes! But I let myself go, then, too. I quit taking my daily walks and a lot of other things. Weight just jumped on, blood pressure got too high. Argh!

It is only about 3 degrees Fahrenheit outside so I’m not even thinking about going for a walk. Maybe I’ll do some “yoga light”.

Here is a not too good photo of a painting I did in college. It is 30” by 30” oil on canvas of my two sisters circa around 1976.