I haven't done anything "serious" in awhile - including this. My Thursday afternoon class wanted to play around with watercolor on gesso-ed paper (gesso is a canvas primer that resists water). The good news and the bad news is that the color can be lifted. It is so forgiving, it is really never finished - I just keep adding here, subtracting there, and each subsequent layer of color pushes around the previous layer.

Now I want to play around some more with clayboard. AND some monoprint. AND . . .

I really do have to get to WORK. Every once in awhile I have to get this experimenting out of my system. I guess that is the way we grow, isn't it. If we don't try something new - or at least something splashy, juicy, or messy, we'll just stay the same forever. Or at least our art will. That's what I'm telling myself, and that's what I'm telling my husband when he says "Haven't you received any checks lately?"

In my classes we have been working on composition, and recently we played around with two very simple concepts - contrast and placement of the center of interest, or focal point. The focal point was placed a third of the way up or down the paper and off center. It was painted with the most contrast - lightest light against the darkest dark, and with the hardest edges.

Painting on a small piece of paper with a fairly large brush ( #12 or 14 round) seems to be very freeing (is that a word?) and proves to us that we don't need a lot of detail.

The experienced students seemed to enjoy the review and had fun with the color mixing, and the beginners found out what they could really do with a few bold, juicy strokes.

This is the MOON! Setting in the west this morning!!! A fantastic view from my studio window - just like a summer sunset, I watched the moon sink into the Bay.

Well, here we go - a new year. There is something unsettling to me about a new year - like the loose ends should be all tied up, and new beginnings should be in place. They're not. When are we supposed to tie up the loose ends? When are we supposed to get the new beginnings all lined up - nothing slows down for us to do that. In fact, if anything, everything just speeds up.

The sun is shining today and the Bay is very blue - a mixture of Ultramarine and Winsor Blue. My classes resume this week after a Christmas break, and I'm anxious to get at it again - painting, teaching, planning . . .

The loose ends don't need to be tied up by the new year, and the new beginnings happen a little at a time. There's no rush. I'm going to have a cup of tea and calm down now. Thanks for "listening".