New Year…New Paintings…(And Old Messes!)

Happy New Year, everybody.

It’s my first blog post of the year, and I’m attempting to keep it short and brilliant. Or at least short.

Yesterday I started the new year out with something I began doing regularly last year: plein air painting. For those of us whose French language skills start and end with croissant, plein air refers to painting outdoors. Here in San Diego you can paint outdoors almost every day of the year, and I hope to do dozens of these paintings in the coming year.

Here’s the painting I did yesterday at La Jolla Shores beach, which is a beautiful spot that attracts visitors as well as locals. There were a lot of people there yesterday, and many stopped to peek at my painting. Some even asked first if it was okay to look, which I found charming. Who says manners are dead?

 

 

It was fun to talk with people who stopped. The only problem is that most of my paintings go through an awkward stage at some point, when they look like a hot mess before everything comes together. Having people watch the awkward stage is tricky but I got through it and they didn’t seemed scarred by the ordeal, either.

In case you’re curious, I painted this with acrylic paints on watercolor paper.

I wouldn’t say that doing more painting this year is actually a resolution. But if it were, I’d have to say that 38 hours into the new year, I’m honoring my goals. Of course, this doesn’t explain why I’ve ignored my multiple Reminders To Self to clean out the unruly wad of stuff crammed into my wallet from last year. Coupons that are probably over a year old. Bandaids. Receipts (just in case). Cleaning out last year’s wallet debris is tedious. And aren’t we supposed to be looking forward at the year to come, not back?

I’ll make you a deal. I promise to clean out the wallet mess sometime this year.

Probably.