Distractions

Progress on my paintings has suffered these last two weeks due to distractions that are just part of daily life. On January 10th as I was painting on "A Walk In the Woods" we had a storm that knocked out the power for a few hours. I was in the middle of painting the foreground foliage and suddenly no power. I had to put away my paints and clean my brushes by candle light. I decided to let the painting dry for a few days.

My next distraction was a good one, I sold two paintings on ebay. This is not usually a distraction, but I discovered that if I could be out of a supply item used in shipping a painting, I was out of it. My printer was out of ink, so I couldn't print the COA. The price of the printer cartridge I used had gone up so much, it was more economical for me to buy a new printer. So then it was necessary for me to install a new printer.

Next, I needed to purchase a box large enough to ship a large painting. The company I usually buy my boxes from had moved, but I finally located them only to find out that they no longer make the size box I needed. This forced me to have to cut two boxes down and create a single box out of them. More time expended figuring this out.

Then to top it all off, the store where I usually buy styrofoam sheets to create packing crates for the paintings was out of them. I had to quickly rethink my shipping procedures and used the pink insulation foam product that is about twice the price of styrofoam.

Lesson learned from this distraction is that I need to restock my supplies before I list my paintings on ebay. What should have taken one afternoon, turned into a three day ordeal.

On Friday, I was excited to see that the Amaryllis bulbs, my friend Kathy gave to me for Christmas, were in full bloom. They are just sooooo beautiful, I just could not resist painting them. So I have started a new work featuring one of these large blossoms.

I will get back to painting the woods after I get my fill of painting these plants. It is incredible having them pose for me in such bright living color.