Still no power at our house. We found a website that gives us a bit of a clue though, our zip code is 94% without power, so I’m thinking it might be a while.
But meanwhile, I am having a blast painting. I constructed a type of holder for my small panels that I can use in my car. It’s just a piece of wood with a small frame around it to hold the panel in place, I put it on my lap and lay it against the steering wheel and voila, ready to paint. The artist that I took the workshop from last week suggested I paint outdoors whenever I can, she suggested I get to carpool line 30 minutes early and sit in my car and just paint something, anything. What a brilliant idea. Well, I don’t know about the carpool line, but being able to paint for 30 minutes from my car is a great idea. Usually when I go and paint outside it turns out to be a half day event so it doesn’t happen very often. Small paintings from my car is a whole new mindset that I have embraced.
Anyway, I have my little wooden panel holder and luckily I brought about 10 canvases with me. Yesterday I drove around and parked off the side of a farm road with a great view of a field and cows. I painted that. Then I cleaned my palette and brushes and drove on to my next spot. I ended up in the Dollar General parking lot overlooking a pretty field and some trees. So I painted that. Then it was time to get back for dinner. After dinner I cleaned my brushes and palette and sat on the dock down by the lake and painted the lake as the sun was setting. Three paintings in one day!
Today I headed out after lunch. I parked along a farm road with a view of some little barn/outbuildings, cactus and trees. Painted that. I needed more odorless turp so I drove to the ACE Hardware store, bought my turp, a small bucket, and a Diet Coke. Cleaned brushes and palette in the parking lot, then decided I liked the view across the highway from the ACE Hardware store. I painted two water towers with a gas station. The water towers were beautiful against the blue sky.
I liked painting from my car in the parking lot, very inconspicuous. So much better than setting up my french easel, for me anyway.
Today is day 6 without power and I’m looking at these days as a gift of time that I’m using to spend time with my family and paint. I don’t have a way to post pictures of my paintings but I’ll have a lot to post when we do go back home to Houston.