Saturday Morning Watercolor

Friendship, Inspiration, and Realizations

Saturday, November 23, I had the extreme pleasure of attending Jennifer Edwards' art show and book signing at Southwinds Gallery in Kernersville, NC. I realized just how great this thing of blogging and internet groups, Facebook, etc., really is! I would never even know Jennifer if not for this form of communication and avenue of sharing our art and our lives. 

My life is so much fuller and busier than it used to be that blogging has moved down on my list of priorities, but when I think of stopping altogether, I realize what would be lost! And I think, "What if Jennifer had never blogged about Genevieve?" "What if she had never written and shared Letters to the Artist, which has encouraged me so much?"

These thoughts also bring me to the realization that what I have to share matters just as much. What you have to share matters just as much; because our sharing touches the life of at least one other person. Each of us has something to bring as an offering to God and to others. We are artists and our unique vision matters. Our voice matters. Money made from our work is not important - that is not the goal of our art, though it would be nice to enjoy that benefit, what really matters is what we give to the world by expressing what's inside of us.

It's possible no one will get it. Maybe we will never feel or experience the glory, the praise, the joy of others' approval, or financial success from our art. Maybe we're criticized. But how will we ever know if we don't offer what we have - dare to live an artful life. I don't want to spend the rest of my life seeing what others can do, watching others be brave, standing on the sidelines in fear of what might happen. Like Genevieve, I have a kite to fly. We all have a kite to fly. 

A Spot of Tea - Literally

With a recent dinner at Village Tavern I ordered this beautifully served cup of hot tea.  My strong urge of course was to paint the beautiful light and form of this tea arrangement. There is just something about white china or pottery.

In my purse I discovered I didn't have my watercolors or a paintbrush. But I did have a sketchbook and a water soluble graphite pencil -- just nothing to make washes with the graphite - no brush.  So I realized in a spark of creativity and resourcefulness that I could use the wet used teabag to paint this page! If you look closely you can see that it's still wet in the photo. I squeezed the teabag to make a nice wash and how authentic and appropriate that it is actually a wash of pure TEA! It also served to dissolve the graphite lines into a nice was to produce the values. I had a glue stick so I was able to glue the teabag tags and papers on the page. What a memory!