Spring is heading our way. The blossoms on the almond tree in our front yard plumped out of the branches, budded and were in full bloom within five days, maybe it was even four. Each year it amazes me how quickly "it" happens. With this new-to-us house we also have an orange tree in the back yard. It remained green all winter while I noticed that others in our neighborhood had lots of orange "pops of color." I thought maybe we were passed over for the fruit this year. But no. Nature was just pacing itself. Little by little I realized that I just wasn't aware of all the work being done in the background. What I could not see were the hidden green balls, that would soon turn orange and make their visual announcement. Every morning I notice more. I know it happens but still each season I am amazed.
I participated in a local monthly art exhibit last evening - only the seond time I've shown any of my artwork in public and again got a wonderful response. I was happily surprized. I even sold a small ink and watercolor painting of a couple of sunflowers. I was and am ecstatic. I wanted to kiss the woman and thank her for buying my "doodles." And that's one that I wasn't going to take, and of course didn't keep a copy. I did get a lot of wonderful comments on my Kandinsky-esque drawing that I used a couple of summers ago when I taught Art Camp to kids.
At the same time I'm getting in to my art work, I'm trying to position myself to teach art to children. My first and very loyal student is Rita. Here she is working very hard. She's not yet three, but she clearly wants to be shown ONCE and then wants to do it on her own. If she said what she thought I'm sure it would be "Quit buggin me, I can draw by my own self."
With three year olds you've got to be faster than the spilling water cup, quicker than the brushes falling off the table and you've got to be in love with brown because no matter how hard you try, they want to mix those colors into each other until they're one uniform color. And it's much easier to work with chaos on your paper. Maybe that's why I like working with them - I think like that too. Here's Rita hard at work.
