My Time

 It is so good not to be doing acrylic painting for the Art Battle! I have been catching up on other things. My Art Appreciation class is winding down and will be done in less than a month. I am still enjoying it, but it will be good not to have to think each week on what I want to teach. It is not that I don't have anything to teach. It is that there is so much to teach. As long as they leave with a little better appreciation for art, it will all be good.

I took my art down at Viridian Duncan and moved it to Viridian Chickasha. Then I promptly put up my acrylic paints and got out my pastels. My next big event is to teach a pastel "paint party" for CTAC toward the end of April. Paint Parties are usually party atmosphere with people who may not be artsy, but like crafty stuff. At first, they wanted me to do pastels and do cards for Mother's Day. I explained that cards would not work with pastels, since they smear and need to be framed under glass. Oh, well, maybe you could spray them with that stuff - was their reply. Nope. It doesn't work that way. The stuff keeps it from being so dusty, but does not keep it from smearing if touched. I explained this several times. And they decided to still do pastels and maybe paint flowers for Mother's Day. Then the director asked me for an old painting of flowers that I had done so she could Facebook blast and send out emails announcing the party. Well, I don't really do pastel flowers. It turns out that I do landscapes and portraits, but no flowers. All my flowers seem to be watercolor. So, I have been busy coming up with some flowers to paint. I may try several more different types of flowers to see which ones work the best - for people who don't really do art, but like crafts :) This is what I have so far:

I have also been doing some pottery. I have thrown about 8 mugs and some wine cups. I did a bisque fire and now some glazing. Hopefully I will get it all glazed and do a glaze fire before next week. I have lots of glazing to do on mugs that did not make it through the big kiln catastrophe of a few weeks ago. I really like the Zen time of pottery. It is definitely right-brained exercise.

Last Sunday we drove to Weatherford, TX, to see family. My nephew and his family flew in from Seattle, WA. His sister, my niece, drove up from Austin with her family. Both have babies that we have not been able to meet due to distance and covid. My little brother came with his son, my nephew, and his family along with their new baby. My sister came from Amarillo to see all the new babies. So there we were all together for the day and did not take a group picture. Ugh! It was really a nice day, though. No one mentioned politics or got into any squabbles. The lake house in Weatherford is very nice. The wind blew like a son-of-a-gun, but we still spent lots of time outdoors. The older kids actually got into the lake - brrr. We left a little early and drove over to see Toby's sister at a nearby lake/town. All was well, and we were home by dark.

I am so enjoying my time without any major to-do hanging over my head.