Thursday – Time for Something Different

Posted on May 11, 2023 by Mary Beth Frezon

Got a good sleep-in this morning after getting up around seven to take meds. I was awakened by the itch! Went to my local diner after filling the car with gas and my wallet with money. There I had a fun time doing a little free-advice phone support. It was a nice reminder that I haven’t forgotten everything I know or how to figure out where I need to be to fix the problem without the “customer” knowing I am looking for it!

Was content just to rest awhile inside when I got home. Am finishing another series on YouTube – had some slow spots but one of the better ones. Then I thought – why break the painting streak? Maybe something fun, quick and different. So here you go: two fun, quick and different paintings.

Anything that works gives [others and yourself] a reason to push you in the direction of the thing that works. You can spend your life imitating yourself. …how am I going to be that person that wrote this thing four or five years ago who I just don’t associate myself with anymore … it takes some pretty big acts of courage to be like “I’m not going to do anything like what I did last time” — Damian Kulash, lead singer OK Go

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Wednesday, All Day

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Mary Beth Frezon

I wanted to stick at home today because this morning I started new medicine and wondered how it would kick in. That was the right move but this afternoon was so nice I had to sit outside awhile so I did and I painted my yard tableau. (nice word, eh? Tableau?) Here’s a couple in-progress photos and a final scanned version.

My advice to you all – stay out of the poison ivy!

Posted in Do the Work, en plein air, gardens and flowers, landscape, taking time to look, the creative process, watercolor | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

From the Quote Box

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Mary Beth Frezon

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light. — Albert Schweitzer

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Tuesday come and gone

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Mary Beth Frezon

Woke up, made an appointment with my primary care provider who happened to be covering the office’s version of “no appointment? we got you an appointment” side of things. Came home with many drugs which will hopefully squash down all the itchiness in a day or two. Distracted myself with a few hours of enjoyable news cycle and then decided to fill in the last hour before next benadryl with a little paint. Oh, and I cleaned up the palettes just to make them less sticky. That’s always good.

Fun trivia: if you can see the tape on the edges of these pictures, it generally means the painting is WAY too wet to take off the board. I prefer scanned images but in the interest of getting it here, I’m ok with handheld for the moment.

Also, I decided going to my haiku group was too much so I stayed home with the haiku I’d written, on the asked for topic of bees.

Full of bird song
The morning flutters along
So many drunk bees

Solitary stone
Bending over to admire
The dandelions

Garlic mustard
Invasive and despised
But not by bees

By the still birdbath
A dandelion bends down
Under one bee’s weight

Posted in Do the Work, haiku, In the neighborhood, landscape, Poetry and Lyrics, the creative process, watercolor | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Monday already.

Posted on May 8, 2023 by Mary Beth Frezon

When I woke up this morning I was an itchy mess. Or at least my neck and chin were an itchy mess. I was going to take some benadryl, but I guess this doesn’t happen often enough (thank goodness) so the first order of business for the day was to drive to Nassau and get some Benadryl to replace what I had with an expiration of 2017. It had reduced a lot of the puffiness and some of the itchiness. Not a lot of itchiness but some. (my guess is that I finally reacted to some poison ivy after all these years) I didn’t want to drive around with Benadryl on board so I did a little this and that and some painting.

First I did this of some of my plants waiting for planting.

Today was the second lesson by Mind of Watercolor YouTuber Steve Mitchell – spontaneous watercolor landscapes. He’s so calming and reassuring. Full of reminders that this is about learning a process and not every one of these will turn out good. It’s about the experimentation and practice. I posted my four sample pieces from last week here and here and truthfully today I was only supposed to play around with the two wet on wet pieces but oh well. I have more paint and more paper!

Posted in Classwork, Do the Work, en plein air, gardens and flowers, In the neighborhood, landscape, life on the web, taking time to look, the creative process, watercolor | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment