To Blog or to Paint? That is the Question....

I haven't written a blog for a couple of weeks and that was because I was using all my spare time painting. Not painting walls and rooms. Painting pictures of cats. I have always painted intermittently, usually when the creative urge struck. I go through different themes and for a while it was paintings of landscapes and especially places I had visited. So I have pictures of Yellowstone Park, New Mexico, Burlington, Oregon and Canada piling up in the room I call loosely my studio.

My paintings are done purely for my own enjoyment. I like the feel of putting down paint and getting a certain effect. My drawing skills are limited but I have developed a specific style of easy painting and it has become a form of relaxation.

I started a blog at the beginning of this year and found that too was for my own enjoyment and also a form of relaxation. I planned to write a blog about once a week but life tends to get in the way of plans, don't you think. I also found a lot of people liked to read my random thoughts as well so I kept going. I looked at other peoples blogs and saw that a lot of blogs were not written at all but were photos, paintings, recipes , music, videos etc. etc. so clearly the blog as a format is in a state of transformation. I guess it started from a daily log and progressed from there. Blog isn't a very nice word. Too much like slog or clog and I don't think I much like being called a Blogger.

So to get back to my original question. To blog or to paint? Just as my blog was really for me and my paintings are for me, I then got a challenge from a friend. Would I please paint pictures of her cats? She has seen the paintings I had done of my son's cats and wanted the same thing done. I was a bit nervous about doing that. My son would be gracious enough to say ,”Great job Mum “when I painted his cats however the paintings came out but could I do this just as well for someone else. I thought about it and decided I would give it a try. Well strangely enough. once I got into the swing of things and started painting away, I really enjoyed doing it and even with my style coming out in the paintings , the cats look almost like they should. I shall just have to wait to see if their owner recognizes them from the paintings to see if I got the likeness right. I think I did.

So now I am torn between blogging or painting. Hey, maybe I can combine the two and do a plog or a blainting. Better check first and see if anyone else is doing that. So I've added the paintings to this blog so is this a plog or a blainting or even a paint blog. Now I'm confusing myself.