Truckin' Along with my Paints

I’m truckin’ along in my quarantine routine-a morning walk, a little bit of yard work (weeds wait for no one!), painting for my 100 day project (We’re coming up on 25 days, a quarter of the way there!), read (I just finished a book on Maynard Dixon, one of my favorite Western painters), some more painting or drawing and time with my husband. I’ve learned that without the interruptions and days that I need to spend out of the studio, I need to factor in more breaks for stretching after ending up with some intense neck pain from spending multiple days basically looking down all day (painting, reading, weeding, pretty much all the same angle!). I’ve got some house projects and we’re finally getting warm enough that I can start planting veggies and flowers which will help to break up my schedule so that’s good. There will be paintings of our lilac bushes and the neighborhood apple tree blossoms to come. Hold me to it!

This is a recently completed painting for a patron who got married at the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend. I grew up on the West side of the state and the thing I miss the most is the ocean so this was a delight to do. I had to include on…

This is a recently completed painting for a patron who got married at the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend. I grew up on the West side of the state and the thing I miss the most is the ocean so this was a delight to do. I had to include one of the ferries!

This is a house portrait with the patron’s beloved pets. She wanted to include both current and deceased pets so we worked out a plan-living pets are inside the house while those no longer with her are in the yard, keeping an eye on the place!

This is a house portrait with the patron’s beloved pets. She wanted to include both current and deceased pets so we worked out a plan-living pets are inside the house while those no longer with her are in the yard, keeping an eye on the place!

This painting and the one below are both gouache studies of Jeremy Lipking paintings for the 100 day project.

This painting and the one below are both gouache studies of Jeremy Lipking paintings for the 100 day project.

You can see the uneven deckled edge at the top of this photo.

You can see the uneven deckled edge at the top of this photo.

A quick morning sketch of the light hitting our neighbor’s yellow house while I was still half asleep.

A quick morning sketch of the light hitting our neighbor’s yellow house while I was still half asleep.

Saturday plans include the wild excitement of making our new favorite waffle recipe: Essential Raised Waffles from Smitten Kitchen. The recipe makes a bunch of delicious, rich waffles that have a crisp outside and soft inside. Sadly not for Belgian waffle irons, just the normal type. I like them for breakfast, then we freeze the rest of the batch. Waffles defrost easily in the toaster oven and I frequently have one topped with avocado and oven roasted tomatoes. Delish!

Wishing you all the best!