January 2025

                               

 

  

Snow!!! I can’t even tell you how much I love snow and we got it TWICE in one month. Louisiana got tons of it. Seeing people ski down Bourbon Street was just too much. A once in a lifetime event for them, for sure!

Pottery classes are back! Walking into class was so much fun. I definitely missed Kate, Julie and J-Dub. They’re so nice, funny, easy going and inspiring. They give me the courage and encouragement to try new things. It’s a very supportive environment.

These are two pieces that I worked on late last year and finally finished this month.

Wednesdays I’m back at Acworth for drawing fundamentals and our class is awesome. They are so focused in class! They work between classes, read drawing books and definitely want it. They’re also very open to all kinds of subject matter. We’re going to have a Van Gogh week in February and I can hardly wait for that.

I took 3 pastel classes this month and …ummm, well, it was interesting. Let’s just say that it was not the right fit. A huge disappointment. Chris DiDomizio is bad, reeeeally bad. This instructor is a close second. 

I participated in Spotlight on Art again this year. After walking the floors, looking at the art, I realized it’s not the right venue for my paintings, especially pastel paintings. 

The upside of Spotlight was that I was happy with the work I produced. So happy, in fact, that I entered several of those paintings to the Pastel Society of America for membership consideration. And guess what … I got accepted. You can only apply for PSA once a year, so to get in on my first try is HUGE. And it tells me that my painting style, is acceptable. I can be myself :)

I had several really nice sales in January, so while the outside world is an absolute shitshow, my art world is just fine. 

The Booth Museum is currently showing the Georgia Color competition paintings, so Kathy and Barbara and I drove up to celebrate the exhibition opening. There was a much bigger crowd than I anticipated. It was a really nice afternoon and great seeing my painting buddies.

PAINTINGS

Lately I’ve spent a lot more time on drawing than painting, and I realized that needs to change. Not sure if this happens to other people, but if I don’t paint consistently, my paintings are not good. So I’m trying to paint every day, even if it’s something small. 

DRAWING

I’m still drawing for about 15-20 minutes a day and have now crossed the one year mark with more than 365 daily drawings. I picked up a new book on portrait drawing that is really helpful: Lessons on Masterful Portrait Drawing. Here’s a great blog post about the book. I’m essentially copying the artist’s drawings to learn. I saw a quote in London that hit home for me: “Carefully drawing from another artist’s work enables them to hold your hand and show you what they did. It’s an exciting way to learn.” So true!!!

OTIS and JULIUS

We took the boys to the vet for their annual wellness visit. Otis got all As on his report card. JuJu did not. JuJu has lost two pounds since last year and that’s not good for cats. The doc said his liver levels are off, so he is on a daily medication for 30 days. I’m not panicking about JuJu but I’m scared. He’s not himself and I miss my little chonky, feisty boy. Lots of cat pictures this month. 

February: Wekiva, a private tour of the Coca Cola art collection, a weekend out of town and the usual weekly routines. Please keep my little JuJu in your thoughts.