7 Bridges Road

This is a spot in Duluth that I have painted before. I'm still figuring some things out about how to get it the way I want it.

Yesterday my friend, her son, and I saw the exhibit at the Duluth Art Institute of the paintings made during this past week. We had seen some of them as they were painting around town and so it was fun to recognize them in frames on the gallery walls. Many of those artists painted spots I had painted at different times in my life so that was interesting to me to see their techniques and interpretations.

I saw a t-shirt yesterday that said "Duluth is a cool city". I agree.

4 months of my life

I am out of shape regarding painting. Just like exercise, it has to be a regular thing or your skills decline. For the past year, painting has taken a back burner to other things in my life. I'm still not sure how much of my energy I want to devote to painting. It shows. I'm not being down on myself, I'm trying to look at my work objectively. I'm going to paint more today and see how it goes. I plan to focus on being present in the moment and enjoy the process.

I was part of an outdoor painting event in Duluth yesterday. This is the result of struggling to paint in the rain for 90 minutes. I started next to a bleeding heart plant using a Pitt artist's pen. I tilted the back of the watercolor block to the sky to keep the drops from falling on it. After that the rain was still going strong, so I bailed from my spot in the garden and started again under the pedestrian ramp where the dandelions grow. This picture is a result of that whole experience.