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.

Feeling Blue

It's a blogging kind of day today. We have had a very Spring like episode in the weather here in Texas with blue skies and sunshine when outside activities have dominated our days. We finally managed to get outside to start tidying up the garden and enjoying the daffodils and the blossom trees l after a longer and colder winter than we are used to. Now today we are back to gray skies and cold winds so inside activity is the thing to do.

Yesterday we painted our hallway , which tends to be a bit dark and a bit gloomy at times. Hallways are a bit like that. So to brighten it up we chose a yellow paint and I'm still not sure I like it.

Yellow once was my favorite color. Choose a new blouse or dress and I'd opt for a bright yellow. I was young . It was fresh and I loved yellow.

As I got older. like a lot of other things, even my choice of colors has changed. I have to think that now blue in all its many variations is my my color of choice. I began to let my mind ramble on why that might be. For sure a bright blue sky can do wonders to lift a flagging spirit. Even if it is really cold as it often is in Canada, a bright blue sky makes it feel less so. We are blessed in Texas to have many bright blue sky days but in the dog days of summer when it gets hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, the sky looses its blueness and becomes almost white and just add to the feeling of malaise and inactivity.

Crater lake painting by SAB

Have you noticed how the blue in the sky changes? You would if you tried to paint it.

A year ago we visited Crater lake in Oregon. A wonderful trip and a must see if you visit out West. When I came back I tried to paint an oil painting of Crater lake but it was the sky with all the variation of blue that I had the most trouble with getting right. The lake itself was the deepest color blue for a lake that I had ever seen , rich and strong without being that ominous dark blue you see in some lakes.

Wedgwood blue ,that lovely light blue, is such a wonderful tone. Paint a room with it and you don't get tired of it. It always looks fresh and gives a sense of calm and peace.

I've always thought how great it would be to have blue eyes. Not so many people seem to have blue eyes anymore and we all miss Paul Newman who had outstanding , penetrating blue eyes. I met a girl once, a friend of friend and she had such intense blue eyes that I couldn't help staring at her. They mesmerized me. I had never seen eyes so blue. It was not till afterward I was told they were only colored contact lenses. I should have guessed. They had been too blue to be real. What a disappointment.

Blue also brings to mind my blue cat. Blue was a stray cat that was hiding out in our barn

Blue Cat

and at first he looked a bit like a cat out of a horror movie. His coat was dirty and almost black ; he was scrawny and thin and very very scared. It took months for him to become the beautiful Russian blue cat he became. His blue was a very special blue, a silvery blue grey. He loved sitting on your lap and I can guarantee the best kind of Blue to have.

There are a lot of songs with blue in the title and as I think of them it brings back memories. “Blue Moon' brings to mind an intense young man I danced with years ago.”Blue Skies” always makes me feel happy but the “the Birth of the Blues' makes me think of the other feelings associated with blue. The dark side. Are you feeling blue? That's not a nice wedgewood blue feeling more like a dark navy blue tinged with charcoal with maybe a mournful trumpet playing in the background.

Definitely not my kind of blue.

Here's one more blue song much more to my liking by one of my favorite singers, Neil Diamond of his greatest and well known. “Song Sung Blue.”

Listen and enjoy , courtesy of youtube.com 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ighSddnnaPE&feature=related

Just looked outside and there in the clouds is “enough blue to make a Dutchman's pair of trousers “ so be assured grey skies are clearing and it will be a nice day after all.