DJ Geribo

Although there is currently nothing much on my easel, I decided to feature this blog post under the heading "On My Easel". The reason I chose that heading is because after many months of little to no painting, my favorite painting buddy and I are planning on getting together to paint again. And I am so looking forward to it! 

I am always torn between writing and painting and a few times, when I've written a children's book, I've combined my two passions. But I have been spending most of my time lately writing. I have SO many stories in me and I'm constantly coming up with others. There just aren't enough hours in the day to both write and paint. But visiting my friend once a week will force me to get back to painting. It is so much fun and relaxing. Not to mention, I have so many art materials in my studio (that's right, I actually have an entire studio for painting!)

So, in the next few weeks I will be painting and posting my newest work. Stay tuned! 

An artist I know put out a challenge on Facebook for other artists to work on their sketching skills for the month of March. I thought, why not? I'm not painting as much as I have since I'm spening more time with my writing, but I miss painting and since each weekly challenge takes a mere 15 minutes to complete, I knew I could do that. I'm a little rusty, especially with my pastel pencils which was the first challenge (sketch a food item) so I then did a pencil sketch, which came out better than the first sketch. 

So although I'm not painting as much as I used to, I still need to go up to my studio and paint from time to time. I miss it and whenever I'm in my studio, which I really enjoy, kind of like my ivory tower, I am surrounded by the sights and smells of being an artist. So I loved the opportunity to not only paint but also donate to a worthy cause - fund raising for a local food bank. 

It has been a couple of months since I sat down in my studio to paint which is why I am really looking forward to this project. A friend who has a gallery that he now shares with two other artists is having a fund raising event for the food bank in the town of Meredith, NH. In the summer this is a vacation destination since the town shares a piece of Lake Winnipesaukee. I've only recently been exploring some of the downtown - I mostly go there to visit my friend's gallery. The main street runs parallel to the major road that takes you by the lake. My husband and I recently ate lunch at a winery in town that had a most interesting lunch menu. 

Because I've been so sad about losing my tiny Binka over 10 years ago now, I have been unable to honor her as she should have been. But I want to honor her now by doing a series of paintings of my sweet girl. This is my 2nd painting of my little girl; it was taken on our front lawn. She loved grass and would eat it, lay in it, roll in it (and not because it had something stinky in it, which is the case with most of our dogs when I see them rolling on the lawn).