White Rose, Long Day

Watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor notebook.
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”).

When I woke up this morning I opened the living room blinds and saw the sun glowing on my white roses. I knew I’d have to hurry to get a picture before the light changed so I grabbed my camera and ran outside in my purple pajamas, not really caring about the people driving by. I knew it was a little odd climbing around in the rose bushes in my jammies, but sometimes we must make sacrifices for our art, no?

Today was another long day at work–stayed until after 7:00 p.m. to meet all my deadlines. I’m so glad I was able to get all the materials prepared for our organization’s presentations in Germany and Washington, DC. It’s also performance review time so those had to be dealt with this week, in between producing materials for several other trainings and presentations.

After a quick dinner and feeling very tired, I gave myself one hour in the studio, knowing I had a nice photo of the rose that I could post if I couldn’t draw and paint something in that time. One hour later, the rose is painted and I’m off to read more of Matisse’s biography, “Matisse: The Early Years” which I’m so enjoying. I’m up to his early 20s and his association with so many of my favorite artists. Talk about sacrificing for art–these guys lived so frugally and were so poor. For example, when Marquet lost his overcoat it meant going without a coat in the freezing Paris winters for the three years it took to save enough to buy another coat!