Work with No Results...

I painted and sketched practically all weekend and haven't finished a thing, so no pictures to post yet. I've got 4 different paintings on the go at the moment - the most I've tried to juggle so far. I don't think it's working. I have a hard time figuring out which one to work on when. The one I should be trying to finish first isn't the one I want to work on and so on and so forth.

I worked on the dog painting the most. It took forever to sketch out because she kept ending up looking like a hyena instead of a dog. I really need to vacuum up all the eraser bits all over my floor, but she looks like she's supposed to. I hope.

Fingers crossed I finish at least one this week!

Days Off

The best part of having a day off work is the hours and hours of uninterrupted (provided the on-call phone doesn't ring) time to whatever I want, whenever I want, for however long I want.

Today, I want to paint. I also want to read, watch movies, sleep, and ignore all housekeeping/errands that need to get done. Which is exactly what I'm going to do.

I've been missing my free time lately, since weekdays were full of over-time and weekends were more of the same. I may still have to be on-call this weekend, but the bright side of that is being required to stay within city limits. A reason to decline plans and stay home to paint some more. It's nicer than saying I'd rather be alone.

I've done a lot already today. Painted the outer border of Baby Clothes, Freud, and Connemara Berries (1/2 of it anyway), worked on Fall Leaves (that one is going to take FOREVER), and sketched out a couple new ones.

I'm sure there will be more to post soon!

Connemara Berries

My day job has been killing me lately. Research proposals, weekend workshops, meetings upon meetings upon meetings, plus the regular stuff. Stress x social anxiety = nutcase me.
Relaxing activities, as minimal as they've been lately, did inspire some painting. The weekend workshop was in Banff and our afternoons were free, so I had oodles of time for exploring and picture taking. Which, of course, didn't happen but I at least got a couple pictures when I wasn't networking. Ugh. I hate networking.

My one reprieve was Sunday night. An evening out with like-minded friends to see Joshua Radin with Laura Jansen and Cary Brothers. Such fantastic singer/songwriters! As my friend Jen said, it was the best $25 I've ever spent. It was the perfect wrap to a busy weekend.

Happily, painting just seemed to flow from there. This is another one of Chris & Kelly's from Connemara, Ireland.

Connemara Berries (9x12)

A few weeks ago, I noticed the list of J names on my iPod is quite a bit longer than any other. And they're all fantastic! Does anyone else have this? Maybe it's because my tastes run one direction and that's what they all sing? Anyway, the discovery just screamed for a playlist for painting.

1. Jack Johnson - Dreams Be Dreams
2. James Blunt - Into the Dark
3. Joshua Radin - Sundrenched World
4. Josh Kelley - Opposite of Me
5. Joss Stone - Free Me
6. Jose Vanders - Blue Notes
7. Jim Bryson - Freeways In the Frontyard
8. Joel Willoughby - Museums and Churches
9. Jeremy Fisher - Goodbye Blue Monday
10 Jamie Cullum - London Skies
11. James Morrison - Broken Strings
12. Jon McLaughlin - Beautiful Disaster
13. Jim Cuddy - Pull Me Through
14. Jason Mraz - Conversation With Myself
15. John Mayer - Perfectly Lonely

A Piece of The Puzzle

This has nothing to do with painting or music (though Cara loves both) but it's important to share.

My friend Cara and her husband are in the process of adopting a baby from the Democratic Republic of Congo and after months and months of working and waiting, they just found out they're #2 on the waitlist. Yay!!!

It's unbelievably expensive to adopt a baby from the DRC so they've set up a few fundraisers to help bring their baby home.

Right now, they're selling puzzle pieces of this 1000 piece puzzle and they plan to hang the completed puzzle in their baby's room. Makes me all weepy thinking about it.

Please take a minute to check out their site, A Piece of The Puzzle, and donate if you can.