Summertime Heat and Art

 We went from cool rainy days to warm humid days to stinkin' hot humid days in about a week. The last few days have been pretty hot. The least little thing I do causes me to sweat profusely. My hair has been frizzy and my bangs curl like crazy giving me that wild woman look. Toby and I have been working out in the pottery room to get 35 mugs ready for the kiln. We do have an air conditioner out in the room, but it takes it a while to cool the room. Every time I go out there, I sweat buckets of water before the air conditioner really kicks in. The good news is that with the sweat and my recent illness, I have lost a few pounds - not enough to make the heat worth it. Last week Jesse taught a "Paint and Sip" plein air class in Wichita Falls at the Kemp Art Center. She asked me to come and bring lots of my art supplies and help her out. It was about the time the temperatures sky rocketed along with the humidity. The class was in the evening 5:30 til 8:30.  We painted in the shade, but just the loading and unloading of art stuff had me wringing wet. The actual painting time was not so bad. Then we loaded everything up and sweated again. Jesse wanted to go for a beer at a nearby outdoor eatery. Fortunately, it was crowded so we chose to go to her house instead. After a shower and lots of cold lime water to drink, I felt more myself. I love air conditioner.

Monday I did a pastel painting to enter in the playbill contest at CTAC. I had saved a photo of an ex-student who is now a musician in NM. Yes, I saw his photo on Facebook and stole it.  The photo is really great with lots of color and light. Since the playbill is usually very colorful, I thought it was a good time to paint the photo. And it worked great. I don't know if it will win, but it felt good painting it.

The musician is Chris Arellano, who was a student of mine in Questa, NM, years ago.  He was always a fun-loving kid. One time he asked me why he should have to take English when all he wanted to be was a musician. I told him he needed English to be able to write good songs - like poetry. He laughed and said, "Oh yeah." like it was a whole new thought. You can find Chris on Facebook or Google and hear his music. He is really quite good. Whether I win the playbill contest or not, I was pretty happy with the painting. Although after posting it here, I wish I had put more color in his face. Maybe I will trade him the painting for a CD.

I finally put some flowers in my planters outside. Since I usually kill most flowers, I put off planting. Of course, I worked up a big sweat being outside. Rocket, the puppy, was quite helpful. Besides putting his nose into everything I was doing, he also found a little box turtle. He has found other turtles. They usually pull themselves tightly into their shell, while Rocket proudly carries them around - the mighty hunter! I chase Rocket around saying, "Gimme that!" until he drops it. Then I try to hide it from him where the turtle might have a chance to get away. Rocket is pretty easily distracted. Rocket is also very helpful when I paint. Here is a photo of him shredding of a roll of paper towels from my art table.

This was taken a few weeks ago, but he shredded another roll while I worked on the painting of Chris. I guess I go into my right brain and ignore him. And he demands attention. He also acts up when Alayna, my art student is here. Speaking of Alayna, she entered a pencil drawing in a Congressional Art Contest. She won. Her painting will hang in one of the tunnels in the Capitol in Washington DC. Not only that, but she and a parent will be flown to DC to attend an artist reception. She is VERY excited. Here is her art work:

Pretty amazing! I'd like to take credit for being her teacher, but this is all her and her talent.

I have some ideas for paintings, which is good. Since I got lots of pottery ready, I can do some painting now. Funny how much I want to paint sometimes. But I love the pottery, too.