Artistic Outlets

Saturday we invited guests to come back to the condo after lunch for drinks and to continue the conversation and a houseful showed up.  It was wonderful, and also revealing.  Only a handful of people have visited the condo before, there were more people here Saturday, then there has been in the 6 years I have owned the place combined.  And they get a chance to see how we live.  One of the discoveries for many was that I like to paint.  I do abstract, color work. Nearly all of the art on the walls in the Condo is something I have done.  There is also a pile against the wall in my bedroom of work that I have finished and will never put up.  I should break then down and toss them.  For most of the guests it was the first time they knew that I try to paint.

I painted as a teenger, trying to do realism, I sucked at it.  There are a couple of those still around.  Near the end of that era I did a couple of abstract color paintings, I loved them, my father thought they were a waste of paint and wasn't shy about saying so.  I stopped because I ran out of space and muses.  Over the decades I would periodically buy paint and other supplies and dabbled a couple of times in watercolor or other media.  When I moved the condo, and I have those long winters here alone when J. is teaching, I decided I would see if I could still paint.  My bedroom is large enough to have a work space near the window.  I enjoy painting.  I like working on large pieces,  the current canvas is 24 by 24, there are several blank 30 by 40s ready to start.

We all need to exercise our artistic side.  I write for this blog, cook, take photographs and paint.  Doing this releases my mind to think differently.  I could list the things I can't do, but better to focus on what I can do.