Artist at Work....

"Winter Bedroom"  16"x20" oil on board

I'm not sure how to even put this, but I am back to 'being' an artist again. That sounds pretty silly, even to myself. But artists sometimes let others define them, and we let them make us feel that we are not 'Artists,' maybe because they don't like our work, or they don't think we make enough money at it. But a firefighter is a firefighter, no matter what he makes at the job as long as he works at fighting fires. And an artist is an artist if they are making art. (And that is probably a terrible analogy, but you know what I mean.... I hope.)

I have not been making art for awhile, as I've been away to visit family, and then I came home with a dreadful head cold, which threatened to put me out of commission forever (as you know, if you've ever had a head cold.) But today, I am back in the studio, doing the work of an artist.

I first wanted to reassess the painting at the top, as I had finished it in the fall, decided I hated it, and stashed it at the back of other unfinished or hated canvases. But, before I went away, I ran across it again, and I decided I didn't hate it as much as I had thought. It just needed a few changes here and there. So I spent a few minutes doing that. It really didn't take much. It is a painting of our 'Winter Bedroom,' which is also the title of it. Yes, we have a winter bedroom and a summer bedroom. That is because in the summer, we sleep in a sleeping porch, and it has no insulation and no heat, so in the winter it is pretty much the same temperature as the outside. So about Thanksgiving we move to our 'winter bedroom,' which serves as a guest room in the summer months, when we have the most visitors.

I have decided that I like the painting because it looks like the room. We won't always live here, and I think I want to paint a number of interiors of this house, because I do love living here. One of my favorite paintings is the one I did of the upstairs hallway, with a tapestry hanging on the wall.

 

After the few minutes at the easel, I moved across the studio to the loom. Above is a tiny bit of what I'm working on today; the October tapestry. It is very good to be a working, weaving artist again, playing with these colorful bits of wool to make a piece of fabric that will also be a meaningful image!

 

And, just for the record, as I have been weaving, I have also been thinking about how fetching I (or anyone) would look in Lady Cora's travel coat and hat. Don't you agree?