Flexibility...

Lemonade   watercolor   13.5 x 18

is a characteristic that keeps us fresh and new.  It keeps the doldrums away, for the most part.  It helps up to solve new problems in a new way.  It prompts us to reuse, deconstruct and reconstruct.  I believe that it is a key ingredient for happiness.  When we first started visiting Charlottesville, Virginia a few years back we wandered into a spacious gallery called Sage Moon.  Great ambiance.  Several rooms.  Artwork by professionals and school children alike.  A cultural mecca.  Owner Morgan MacKenzie-Perkins, a dynamo to be certain, had to close this gallery due to the economy's downturn.  She picked up the pieces and found a new way to operate.  The works she features are shown in various local locations, including Siips Wine Bar.  Although she regrets this turn of events, she has certainly made the most of a bad situation.  Thanks to Morgan, many artists are still being shown in this wonderfully cultural community.

Lemonade from lemons.  Fresh at that.

ah, the best laid plans...

Garden Bench   mixed/paper   20.5 x 27

We need to be flexible.  No painting ever unfolds exactly the way we see it in our minds. Sometimes there isn't even a plan. For some unknown reason, watercolorists have a difficult time adding other mediums to the mix, as transparent watercolor, the pure way to work, is considered by some to be preferable.  But sometimes the limitations of the medium snag the progress.  "Garden Bench" started as a large watercolor.  I didn't have a preconceived notion of its appearance.  But I knew that I wanted the end result to have a sun-parched, chalky feel.  At some point in its evolution, I added gouache.  That helped, but I seemed to spiral on and on without arriving.  Enter Christmas season and the painting was put away for reconsideration.  Come February, I had had it.  What did I have to lose? Pastel was added, and washed down with water and a large brush.  The resultant painting had the feel that I wanted.  I arrived.....through the back door.