You Should Be Painting

I’m so close to finishing my time painting!  I can’t wait to move on to my next piece.  While taking a break from painting this evening, I stumbled upon the website for New American Paintings.  If you’ve never picked up this magazine/book, then you are really missing out on something wonderful.  I’ve been a fan of the magazine for years.

There are 6 regional competitions each year across the United States.  Each issue showcases the winners of a different region.  Every year, I always miss the deadline to enter in its competition.  This year, I will finally make sure that I submit work.  The magazine is more like a book with beautiful prints of each winning piece along with a short bio of the artist.  It is such a fantastic showcase of so many artists that I most likely would not have discovered.  When you pick up an issue, you feel so overwhelmingly inspired to create.  It makes me want to push myself further.  To try something new and exciting.

Another great feature of the publication is that it shows so many different genres of art.  It is not limited to only abstract or realism.  Check it out or you will be missing out!  Back I go to place my nose to the grindstone…

If you are interested in checking the website out, visit http://www.newamericanpaintings.com/index.html.

We have had fantabulously gorgeous weather the past few days.  On Wednesday, I was pulled out of the house to the park with Adrian and our pug Jacques.  Jacques had a blast but pooped out pretty early on.  We then traveled to the italian ice stand where I had a delicious strawberry shortcake misto shake.  Jacques had a swedish fish flavored ice that stained his little beard red.

It was so beautiful that I started thinking about the possibility of attempting to create some landscape paintings.  In the past, I dabbled in working with oil pastels and had a small collection of landscapes.  They can be fun and freeing.  However, they never seem to fully satisfy my need to work with smaller still life setups.  When we returned home, I continued to work on my clock piece.  It is coming along and should be completed by next week.

Yesterday, I made the 3-hour trip to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to be treated by my Rheumatology docs.  Once again, I almost had a mental meltdown with trying to make it to my appointment on time.  Can someone please explain to me why Penndot feels the need to take 2 lanes of the highway and close it down to one lane for miles and miles?  The large orange and white barrels blocked the left lane for what felt like an eternity with not a single soul in sight working on the road!  I finally made it to the hospital and they were wonderful enough to still see me even though I was ridiculously late.

After my visit, we walked around Fells Point.  We ate a delicious dinner at a small restaurant by the inner harbor and then visited our favorite record store in the area.  The trip ended with a super creamy gelato sundae and a long ride home.