Coffee And Paint Drips Blog - Page 38 of 79

Thought for Thursday

“It takes a long time to become young.” ~ Pablo Picasso, Artist

Doing Nothing with Mr. Resistance

What is it about time flying by that makes some of us want to just sit back and watch it? Just having that feeling to hang out, sit back, let the clock tick on without a care to do much of anything beyond the necessary is de rigour around here lately.

The to-do list grows faster than the grass in my yard. All I can do is watch and wait. The adage that says “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”? Not around here. My say is “when the going gets tough, do nothing”. Some people say “go shopping”. Me? I do nothing.

You can read all the books you want about fighting down resistance to creating and sometimes that nasty guy gets the better of us anyway. I know what to do but Mr. Resistance has me by my throat, that bum. I have many ideas running through my head and none of them appeal to me at the moment. The last painting I finished is sitting there waiting for me to free it from the watercolor block. I just don’t. And knitting? Blahh. Maybe jewelry? Ugh.

Something clicked on the off switch and I’m out. That beach day we had that earthquake I fully intended to paint. Just twenty minutes of work. The ball started rolling downhill after I realized I ate my still life painting subject! And it was a nice peach too. Then the hurricane happened and didn’t help things move along any better.

I spent today trying to make calls to repair people who are all tied up with hurricane damages of their current customers. My roof leak will have to wait. But while I do that, the sun is out and it’s still hot, the dryness of the air reminds me that August is at it’s end. Bummer.

I wouldn’t call it a full fledged blockage, just a minor hiccup in the creativity area. This might be the second hiccup though, so measures might have to be taken to keep Mr. Resistance busy while I sneak out the back door to hide.

Who’s with me?

Fun With Hurricane Irene

We survived Hurricane Irene. Without power all day, we listened to our radio and looked out the window at the crazy weather.

We watched as one neighbor couldn’t wait for the hurricane to be over to start removing the small tree that fell on his front yard. A little while later an ambulance pulled up and he went inside to have his vitals monitored.

What’s with men and wild weather that they can’t wait to get moving and doing? Even The Mr. was itching to get out to his business to look around. They don’t care what’s going on outside. Men are just plain crazy.

These trees fell around the corner from our house. Thankfully, all we had to do was clean up some branches, leaves and repair our fence. The electricity came on at 9PM. Minutes later we heard an explosion and saw the street lamps go out, along with our neighbors’ lights across the street.

So, earthquake and now a hurricane. All we’re missing is a volcano. That’ll happen next week, I’m sure.

Photo for Friday

The calm before the storm…

Thought for Thursday

“It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.” ~ Mark Rothko, artist

What a Day at The Beach!

Tuesday was a beautiful day. Gorgeous was with the Princess visiting a friend and I was going to go to the beach by myself. I don’t have a problem being alone at the beach. It’s family friendly, peaceful and there’s usually plenty of other lone people doing their own quiet thing.

I brought my travel watercolor set, fully intending to put it to good use. I also brought along a book to read before I felt like painting. I managed to remember to take a few photos before I settled into my inert position in my sand chair.

For a beautiful sunny day, this beach was practically empty. Fine with me. Empty beach almost all to myself is a wonderful thing. The few kids on the beach just had to play football right near me though. Of course I had to tell them to move down the beach and hit other people with their football. Geez!

I had my little lunch, read my book, and ate my peach when I realized I had planned to paint that peach with a few shards of sea shells. Oops! So I just kept reading and enjoying the scenery. I answered a call from my mom and while we’re talking I felt a weird movement as I sat in my chair. I thought it must be the wind pushing me funny.

My mom said her desk was shaking and she felt dizzy. I told her Wait a minute, I feel the same thing! I noticed other people began to stand up on the beach and look around, and said such to Mom. It was almost 2PM and I decided I am done here. Wait, is this an earthquake?

Texts were flying into my phone from Gorgeous, my sister, Son#2, Mom. Some of my outgoing texts would not go through. I couldn’t access voice mail either. As I was leaving I asked some other women if their phones worked. They didn’t. Well, everyone started talking about what was happening.

New York had a 5.9 earthquake yesterday and I was at the beach when it happened. Now that I think about it, what a jerk I was. I should have ran out of there as soon as I realized what was going on. Did I want to be in the middle of a tsunami resulting from said earthquake? Uh, no thank you.

What kind of New Yorker am I? I was lulled by the beauty and peace of the beach into thinking I was safe.

Next time, run you idiot.