I present on this blustery spring day a couple of my favorite pictures since I last posted. The one of my porch view looking east and the portrait I painted of my friend, Liseli. At first I didn’t like it, thinking it didn’t look like her enough, but the more I see it the more I like it and want to do more of the same. I’ve been terribly engrossed in this business of living since last I wrote and haven’t had a spare second to clatter out my usual monthly missive, but I’m sliding into home plate on the comet’s tail of March. Wheeeeeeee!
School life has been full of jackassery from the beginning all the way to the end of the month. The mask mandate ended and with it any common sense about what constitutes good public health in a small classroom. 30 children have the option of wearing a mask or not. Makes me nervous, but I guess I’ll just have to hope my vaccines and booster do their jobs. The minute a 4th booster becomes available, I’ll be waiting my turn in line. No one knows which direction future viruses and variants will carry us, but I try not to spend too much time worrying about it, only a little. In 3 more years I’ll be cashing in my chips and heading for higher ground.
In the meantime nice blog readers and former class members still send me inspiring things in the mail like the bluejays.
Kids keep writing funny Spelling sentences. Some that need to be printed and and placed on the board.
The Victorian Box factories keep pumping out wave after wave of splendid scents just like they did last year.
Rain occasionally arrives in March when you least expect it.
Kids keep filling up their journals and starting new ones. I have some good writers this year that know how to knock out a journal page like nobody’s business.
Bring-Your-Stuffed-Animal-To-School-Day rolls around every Friday in our class which adds to the jackassery. One of my favorite kids who is a holy terror on the playground, brings his little bear to class and cradles it like a baby. I can always relate a little to the kids with poor impulse control, having had so little myself when I was a kitten. Meanwhile we’re reading about Anne Frank, Harvey Milk, reading poems by e.e. cummings, and everyone’s learning how to carry their hearts like teddy bears.
But it’s not all sugar and gumdrops in the little class in the big city and don’t you dare think it is! Not for a minute.
I been busy! I been grumpy! And when I tried to read a page of Anne’s diary aloud I got teary. I’m still waiting to wake up in a non-reactive world of peace and utter tranquility, but so far it hasn’t happened. No matter! I keep on truckin’
But I’m not too busy or grumpy to draw and paint. Except I was more productive in February than March.
Things are in full bloom around Moss Cottage. Every window I look out is announcing some celebration or other.
I posted most of these sketchbook pages already on IG, but here’s a closer look.
Suzuki Roshi said it best:
I like to read it when I get the idea into my head that life should be going much smoother than it actually is.
Settles me right down again!
Couple of these on a Friday never hurt anything either.
My back patio is my sanctuary.
On Saturday a couple of old friends are stopping over for an art date. Lucky me!
I made this handy dandy reference guide because I kept getting confused about which sketchbooks were finished and which weren’t.
I have an idea brewing. It started when someone emailed me and asked if I would consider updating OH MY GOUACHE – one of my online classes from 2016. Well I hadn’t thought of it, but then suddenly I was thinking of it. Lots of ideas were coming to me. Mostly how it would be easier to UPDATE an existing class than start something from scratch. Once I met gouache I fell in love, and never fell out of love. It’s My Thing. I was thinking I would just add a 2022 section to the class. Add a few videos with my current gouache practices and how I’m working these days. Maybe schedule a Zoom date where those who are currently registered can paint together with me every now and then. This is all speculative, but I think it’s a good idea. I’ll keep you updated on where all this goes. I would do it this summer. If you’re interested it would require you to be a current member of the class, that’s all. Registration is currently set at $35/year. I probably wouldn’t change that. This isn’t an advertisement, it’s just me thinking out loud. If you have any good ideas drop me a comment or email me directly. Thank you to the person who emailed with this idea in the first place. It sparked a lot of reflection in me.
Okay friends, this is all she wrote until next month. Stay safe out there. Stay calm, but if you throw a temper tantrum keep a teddy or bunny nearby to hug. It helps!
Send me a smoke signal.
Bear hugs & air kisses! xo
I’m a little behind on my blog reading and I’m one of your quiet readers. Was so surprised to see your blue jay paint-by-number paintings — I bought a set of these almost 15 years ago at a thrift shop!
Oh yes please to an Oh My Gouache Revival!! You’ve made my day!
Definitely yes to Oh My Gouache The Revisit (yippee!!!) Thank you alert reader who suggested it, and a painting zooming thing would be lovely.
I’m heading back across the pond very soon with fourth shot in arm. It’s strange when one marks time by considering the event of one’s vaccination. The first, only one year ago, found me literally ecstatic in a motorcade wrapping around the Orange Co (Florida) convention center’s mass vaccination site. Photos were taken, Ode to Joy playing on my headphones as I waited in the observation area nervously. Its companion administered a mere three weeks later was almost as exciting, and merited another photo. I remember saying to the person handing out masks that I hoped we might not need them much longer. Clearly I should not be paid to predict the future. Vax the Third was at a National Health Service vaccination facility near Edinburgh Airport, where you get a ‘jag’ (not referred to as a shot, sometimes called a jab) and it was very cold. The staff took time out to walk elderly ladies across the parking lot to the bus stop, and I was moved by how kindly it was. My fourth was at a grocery store this week, next to the floral section which is next to the deli. You can prevent Covid and obtain a turkey sub within 50 feet of each other in Florida. What a strange time in our lives this has been.
Oh Jane, I would love to see you in a Zoom. Thanks for your vaccination story. I must investigate getting my 4th since it sounds like they’ve arrived officially. Sending love and bright wishes to Scotland xo
Hi Mary Ann,
I am always looking for your posts!! I always hope they will come along a bit early… I am scheduling for my fourth shot soon and I have some actual travel plans coming up. In late May I’m heading your way – going to visit Yosemite and south of that all the way to Death Valley. Have never seen either so am pretty excited and have my fingers crossed that the virus won’t rear its ugly head yet again and spoil it!!!
I would LOVE to see an update to any of your course because I’ve loved them all. I wonder if you would consider thinking about updating a book structure for us to work in for OMG!?? I so love all of the journals I’ve made in your classes.
Stay safe and stay well; it’s still our choice to wear our own masks and stay distanced!!
Yosemite! Death Valley! Enjoy both very much. I will think about the book structure. Masks have been a godsend. Who knew we could prevent so much illness by wearing them in certain situations. Amazing!
With three in school ranging from 3rd grade to 7th I feel the jackassery! We’re still masked until a week after spring break (next week) and then it is optional. I feel for the teachers and for the kids. I have 2 that can’t wait to take off the mask and 1 that will probably never want to take it off and I wonder about the pressures they will feel either way. What a mess! Thank you as always for your lovely posts, they are my favorite.
Yes! It’s difficult for everyone. The majority of my students remain masked but a few take off at different points during the day. About half unmask outdoors where they feel safer. I put on 2 when someone seated close to me unmasks. We’ll all adjust eventually (in our own ways) and next year will probably start out unmasked, but who knows?
It’s no great hardship in the greater scheme of things and I think children and adults need to remember that (me!). I’m thinking of Ukraine here and other places in the world that are so hard to live in right now. We have it SO EASY. If we get sick most of us will probably be okay.
I love your posts. I wish I had a teacher like you when I was a child. I don’t remember doing any art at primary school school. I remember hymns we sang, sports day on the vicarage lawn. I won the egg and spoon race, and got a sixpenny stamp for my savings book. I remember being disciplined for not eating my school dinner. lumpy mashed potato, brussel sprouts that where cooked to death and liver also over cooked until it was good for the sole of a shoe. I had to stay in all playtime with this horrid meal congealing further, and as I still refused to eat it. A wicked waste when there are children in Africa starving was the line. The teacher poodles George who would continually mount our legs in the playground.
Any who , enjoy those cocktails as you have seriously earned them. I find your art work inspiring, colourful and warm.
Best wishes
Wendy
PS
I know I would not be able to read Anne Frank out loud. I cant even read The Christmas express.
Wendy, what a vivid picture you painted in my mind of your school days. I enjoyed your description so very much!
Mary Ann, I think it would have been just darling to have you as a teacher when growing up. Alas, we are of a similar age. Your students are lucky to have you in their corner from daily class to your fund raising actions. I can sense you were made for teaching. Yes, please on an updated gouache class!!!
I’m excited to update OMG with some new videos but most especially to finally meet some of you in a Zoom! Where are you located Emie? North America or Europe?
Mary Ann, since I began following you about a hundred years ago your portraits have just bloomed! These latest are quite lovely. It makes me smile to see what continued effort will do and it makes me get back to work. You are one of my heroes even though I am decades older than you. Not only all that, but your back patio is to dream of! Keep it up, MA, you inspire!
HELLO Caroline. I find art skills bloom even underground. All of that continued practice really does add up. thanks for your good note and your continued return again and again to my digital home. xo
Hello MAM, They dropped the mask mandate at work; so far, no jackassery (other than the usual college student stuff). However, I have caught the common cold. It”s the first one I’ve had since December 2018. Seriously. I think it is finally going away. Very grateful it wasn’t any worse! Spent most of the month working on a 3″ x 3″ accordion book from an online class I took with Jane Chipp called Enfolded Memories. I think I used too much Nori Paste on the collaged pages b/c they buckled. I never seem to be able to find a good glue. They either dry too fast, stuff falls off the pages after a couple of years, don’t stick properly…
Anyway…I like your key to your journals. I don’t have as many as you do, but that’s really a good idea for keeping track of them.
Take care, stay well! XOXO
I have also sketched the journals before to keep track of them, but this was easier. sorry about your cold. i haven’t had one of those in a few years! i let kids know that if they need to approach me to PUT ON A MASK! I’m glad you’re enjoying a fun new class. Yay!!
I love receiving your dispatches! Thanks for taking the time to share. The photos around Moss Cottage are always interesting to me. Your “habitat” is very different from ours – middle Georgia – lots of heat and humidity and often rain, plus I live in a very rural, woodsy area. Yes to updates to OMG, please. And wherever the bluejay paintings came from – they’re fantastic.
They came from Ventura, just a skip up the coast. I’m so crazy about them. One of my students is researching Georgia and yesterday asked me if I knew it was named after King George. To which I replied, “no!!!!!” How interesting. I’ve driven through many times in my 20’s and long ago, in another life I went to the okefenokee swamp on a boat with a big propeller with a guide and an irish nun. sister hannah. i’ll never forget it.
I have kept signing up again and again for OMG so OF COURSE I would greatly enjoy more input from your fine self per gouache and your current practice. I think your portraits are just terrific too and I am so impressed by your development and your fearlessness too.
Waving to you Nancy Jane. From across the miles xo
Since I took the gouache class it was my favorite! And I can’t think of any other medium that exites me more. I’d love for you to add your gouache faces, more birds or just paint ideas, zoom would be great. So into it!
Oh thanks for the feedback, Kate. Gives me ideas!
I love reading your updates! Always brings a smile to my face. And I would LOVE an update to Oh My Gouache and zoom sessions. It would be so much FUN!! Count me in. The kids in your classroom are really lucky to have you for a teacher.
Awesome! The more input I get the more excited I am to do it, so thanks, Cindy. Wheeeeeee!
Yay for thinking about updating/whatevering/let’s just do it in gouache or whatever! Can’t wait! Love this update.
How’s life in France/Switzerland? I think of you often over there and imagine what you’re up to… xo
What a great post again. Beautiful portraits. I never use gouache much because I find acrylics more forgiving, but I’d love a good course how to use gouache. I’d also love a zoom meeting. I once followed one of your courses, forgot the name now, it was a about drawing and painting objects from life. A pity it’s not a course to keep forever. I’d love to go back to it now I’ve learned more.
I love your faces, and those HANDS ARE AMAZING!!
I always love to read your posts…blog posts are way more satisfying than Instagram (especially the reels…)
Gwen, always love hearing from you. The hands were fun. I’m not on IG enough to have caught on to all the new ways of posting. But I do know I find all the videos and the loud sounds disruptive. I’m scrolling and get so startled at times. I must be turning into a little old lady. Which is fine. More than fine.
Hmmm… school sounds precarious! Take care! And yeah, get that 4th jab ASAP! Love all your portraits, by the way! Portraits are not necessarily about resemblance… they are about capturing the person’s essence, and yours all seem to!
Yes, I concur about portraits, but I do like them to resemble the person. However I’m in love with the Liseli portrait and it does capture her hidden essence which is goodness.
Precarious. good word. If I can make it to spring break without getting sick i’m good.
Lovely portraits. Wonderful photos. I’ve enjoyed watching your journey in gouache. An updated class sounds great to me.
Thanks, Genie!
Before I got to the part about the updated class, I was sitting there planning to ask you about that! A class, I mean. Count me in, if you do it. I have never been busier in my life, though. We are selling our farm and downsizing considerably, and I am doing it almost single handedly, which might mean it will take a few months before I get to paint anything besides walls in houses. Trust me, it isn’t nearly as therapeutic as painting art. It even kind of hurts these old bones😄
Ugh, Karen. wall painting. No thanks. You’re brave and strong to be making the move and doing so much by yourself. Can’t be easy. I wish I could see a picture of your farm. You could send me one if you think of it.
Your posts make me smile. Your students are so fortunate to have you as their teacher!
At times it is their misfortune. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Your yard seems magical.
Hi Pam! Dottie mentioned seeing you v.v. soon in ABQ. Maybe we’ll meet someday!
I am so glad that you send out a missive once in a while. I look at your work and must not be following you on IG as I have not seen most of it. Thank you for reminding me to stop scrolling and get my brushes wet! Love the idea of an update on OMG! And bless you for being a teacher that gives the kids journals and makes them write in them.
I’m glad when people haven’t seen it on IG. Makes me feel like I’m not just repeating everything! I’m a bit of a drill sergeant with the journals, or I was. They’ve really gotten into the flow now and i hardly have to nag at all.