Pregled posta

Marketing

We decided to drive down to Disneyland instead of taking advantage of the plane tickets work was providing.

I mentioned that I was thinking about doing just that a week before the trip. I really don't enjoy the hassle of air travel, and when I saw the instructions that recommended we were to be at our shuttle stop on the return 4 hours before our flight, and realized that if I drove away from the hotel on the way back I'd get in at about the same time, I started to seriously consider it.

Then there were the side benefits. Obviously we'd have less stress because we'd be in complete control of when we left. But we'd also get a chance to take side trips--like this one to Casa de Fruta. (We'd hoped to get to see Lisa down in LA finally, but she was too busy with work to make it feasible.)

So at the Super Bowl party the day before, we talked about it. We kept going back and forth. Benson, who would get out of taking me to and picking me up from the airport, subtley argued in favor of the car trip. We decided to go, but then spent a couple hours on Gtalk later in the night deciding if we really really wanted to. (There were some cons--having to pay for gas vs. a free plane ticket, being tired from driving, not experiencing being in a large crowd of people from work taking over the airport, etc.) By the end of the night we made up our minds to drive down at 10 the next morning.

I woke up at 7:30 to a report on NPR that I-5 over the Grapevine was closed. Great! I called Wendy to say we could either fly after all or just spend a couple more hours taking (the much more scenic) 101 down. Since she'd already told the trip organizers she wasn't flying, we decided we'd do 101. Fortunately by the time we left, the Caltrans website said 5 was open again.

I almost always stop by Casa de Fruta when I'm heading down south, but I was tempted to skip it this time so we'd get in earlier (there were some keynote addresses starting at 5:30, and we were already pushing it). Since Wendy had never been, though, I decided we had to stop.

We loaded up on dried fruit, nuts and various chocolate products--and a couple fresh apples. I was happy for the apple, but we decided by the end of the drive that we should have gotten more of the chocolate stuff and less of the weirder dried fruit stuff (dried kiwi and pluots were particularly bad choices).

This little painting was a test of my patience and skill level. I started this a bout a month or so ago... figuring it would be a quick simple little painting. I was wrong!

Every attempt to paint it just ended in disaster. I painted and washed this painting back 8-9 times. I just couldn't get what I was envisioning... though I was getting a nice underpainting from the staining pigments!

I gave up... put it aside telling my hubby that right now this is beyond my skill level to save, but I know there is a painting in here.

So... it sat on the shelf for about 4-6 weeks. This week I decided to clean up my awaiting paintings before tackling any new ones. Actually I have been working on both new and old paintings... small ones... 8 x 10's and have been enjoying working with that size though I do like to work bigger... 16 x 20 up to full sheets (22 x 30).

This was the next one in the pile so I put it back on the easel and off I went. Well... first I use a Mr. Clean sponge and lightened some areas. From there I applied... lifted... applied and blotted... and let it air dry between layers vs the hairdaryer I use ALL the time.

I realize this is not the best composition, but I wanted to keep working with it to see what I could accomplish with the challenge. I used a scraping tool for highlights... I also used some gold and silver paints for highlights... just got them and trying them for the first time... so this was an experiment of all types. I do like to play with my paintings... apply, lift, scrub, sand... scrape... spray, etc. I rarely just apply paint and let it dry.

This is the results framed (the photo is a tad blurry) and I will say it looks better in person. I am proud of this little painting as just a short time ago it was beyond my skill level to save... and now it is definitely frame worthy!

Don't give up... set it aside and come back to it another day... there is a treasure just waiting to be discovered. Ohhh... and with the watercolor canvas you could paint a painting 100 times over or more... it won't let you give up...;)