Carrots....

I came home from New England with a nasty fall cold. It has been a chore to motivate myself to do anything, so I have been 'dangling carrots' in front of myself, with the promise that, if I keep moving, I will reward myself.


The thing I needed to keep moving towards was the completion of the lower borders of the Nativity tapestries. I finished these up yesterday! So next I will need to enlarge the cartoons for the upper tapestries. But I promised myself that, when the weaving on the borders was completed, I would take a bit of weaving time off and I would paint something. I haven't painted anything except small travel watercolor sketches since mid-May! I wasn't certain I'd even know how to hold the brush!


So yesterday, I determined I'd paint a small 'unimportant' painting. I decided not to do anything large, so I prepped an 8"x10" canvas. And I didn't want to paint an image that was meaningful or special to me, as I didn't want to 'ruin' it, having not painted for so long. So I chose a pretty trite and simple subject; a barn on a grey New England fall day. I painted simply for the joy of smushing the paint out of the tubes onto the canvas with my brushes. I delighted in the smell and feel of the process, without having any expectation for the product. So much fun! Even though I did not create a great work of art, I remembered why I love to paint. So now I want to do more of it! I have prepped two more canvases.

Why do we wait so long to do the things we love doing? Yes, I have been pretty busy lately, but I have done other things; I have practiced my guitar, I have kept up with my Words with Friends games, I have exercised, I have read a few books. So I will do an occasional painting, as well. I'm going to try to do at least one small painting each week, even while I am working on the commission tapestry.

Another 'carrot' that has been dangling in front of me is not as 'tasty.' I need to get out into my garden and do some fall clean-up. Looking at the weather forecast, today and tomorrow are the days to do it. So I'll clean my brushes for now, and will stick my wet paint palette in the freezer for another day.