Getting back into the groove...

"Study of marigolds in a ceramic jar" by Hilary J. England, 2011, 8" x 11" oil on canvas

I haven't been painting much lately, sadly.  I feel like I spend all of my time in hospitals for the last year or so.  This got me down, really down.  It was an effort to even get the basic things done around me, such as getting out of bed after a while, when I would lay there and see my afternoon filled with shuttling kids around to Dr appointments, between Anthony and Noelle.  But, after a couple of weeks of feeling down, the Spring won out, and I picked up my brushes, dusted them and myself off,  and got back to work.

The weather went from 50 to 80 in nearly a day, so the air conditioners will need to be put in soon.  This makes me a little frustrated because that small window of time, perhaps two weeks, (which when I was a kid used to be the entire Spring season) that we all have between freezing temps and blistering heat,  has now passed in the middle of my turmoil, and that was a very productive time for me, because it was one of the only times of year (a few weeks in the Autumn as well) that my studio was completely and blissfully comfortable in terms of temperature.  Now I will have to start sweating it out in there.  Yuck.

Ah well.  I can only go to work and be thankful I actually have a studio nowadays.  For years, I put all three kids into a bedroom, with bunk beds and a crib, and used the other bedroom as my "studio."  Mean?  Not really.  Even after we bought a big house a few years later, when they were young kids and not babies anymore, and they all had their own bedrooms, they still all wound up sleeping in one room anyway.  Funny how that is!

So, enjoy the little study I did of the marigolds.  I had to start somewhere, and I find that painting flowers sometimes is very soothing, because of their texture, and their quiet, transient beauty.  Plus, smelling them is always a bonus!