I work every day, including weekends. Long gone are the days when I looked forward to the weekend for rest and respite from a 9-5 job. Sometimes I get nostalgic for that feeling, but not for the 9-5, not at all. I traded a regular paycheck for a feast-or-famine income, and I work harder than I ever have before, but I cling fast to my chosen path because it gives me an irresistible reason to face each day.

Sunday stitching. Little pretty things. A brooch, and a mini art quilt.

And some brushstrokes.

And a new week begins.


 
Simplicity is the removal of the useless and the unnecessary--source unknown

 Watercolours/watercolors...........my first love. And you never forget your first love.
Painted last night before going to bed.

 
Simplicity is the removal of the useless and the unnecessary--source unknown

 My work table on a Monday morning.

 Doing one of my favourite things, gouache and watercolour on paper.

Here's to a happy week ahead.

  
Simplicity is the removal of the useless and the unnecessary--source unknown

Some time ago, I went through a  phase of painting faces in black and white gouache. It was a satisfying exercise. I suspect a tiny part of the black and white appeal was that I wasn't sure about painting faces in colour, especially watercolour, which is difficult to control especially when painting wet on wet. But there comes the moment when you just go for it and damn the consequences.

Simplicity is the removal of the useless and the unnecessary--source unknown

 How to let go.

Take a sheet of watercolour paper.
Drop some clean water here and there on the paper.
[Don't think. Just do it.]
Load brush with colour and drop on the paper.
[Don't think. Just do it.]
Tip the paper around and let the paint move wherever it wants to go.
Give the image that emerges some definition with your brush.

Simplicity is the removal of the useless and the unnecessary--source unknown

 It's a bright sunny day, and very cold. A perfect winter's day. The windows, which have taken a pummelling from rain and snow and wind and need cleaning, can't compete with the blinding sunshine, and my apartment is flooded with light.

Inside the colours are softer. And the days are getting longer....

Simplicity is the removal of the useless and the unnecessary--source unknown

This is another of my unplanned paintings [unplanned meaning pick up the brush and go wherever it takes you].

I look at it and see:

Three Mountains (the Three Sisters?)
A pudding
A whirlwind

 Simplicity is the removal of the useless and the unnecessary--source unknown