August 3, 2018

  Right now my dog Frisco is putting his paw on my leg and looking up at me with those big dark eyes rimmed in white.  He wants to play.  He makes play a priority.  If I don't provide him opportunities to have fun he makes them and they usually end up getting him in trouble.

Play.  Joy. Time to get back to painting things that bring joy...time to play with painting.

This is an attempt at the 2018 Natchitoches Christmas Festival Poster...wanted to do animals but just couldn't tie them to City of Lights kind of thing.  Deadline passed before I could work it out.  So, start now for next year!








These are projects I'm working on: (would like to have items 3 & 4 done by Labor Day...yikes!)

1. Commissioned portrait for AT (painting in progress) 
2. portrait of my grandfather (1.wood prepared, 2.copies of reference photos made,3.begin sketches)
3. 4 paintings of our family's camp, each one of a different stage of it's development over the 70 or so years of it's existence. (1.wood prepared, 2.print copies of reference photos)
4. portrait of my grandson's dog (for him to take to LA Tech) ( begin painting)
5. portrait of my niece's dog ( begin sketch onto canvas)
6. painting of my parents' home of 64 years ( locate reference photos; canvas)

Map from Come  Back, Jack! for sale at Tres Bien Antiques, Rue St Denis, Natchitoches

7.  Organize promotion for "Come Back, Jack!" for the Fall. (Set date; order books)
NEW IDEA:  get items to represent the different characters in Come Back, Jack! and go to schools to read the book to children with children chanting the Come Back, Jack! chorus.
 Mixing spoon for Kitchen shop, red tie ?? for Sports Museum, menu for Magglieaux's, small toy for Kaffie Frederick's, lady's fan for Tres Bien, American Flag for boat, fake magnolias for city hall, Firemen's hat for fire station, book marks for library....hummmmmm.  Kids would love but how many?  Just enough for one class...probably no more than 2 or 3 of each item unless I'm doing more than one class.
Either make a BIG BOOK or put onto a flash drive.  I think I have this in electronic form.  Find it.

OR  I make large foam board cut-outs of the characters and mount on dowels.  Assign children to the characters and when I (or the teacher) hold up the cut-out, the children say:  Come Back, Jack!

8.  Paint collage of Natchitoches to sell at Tres Bien  (Insert the word 'Natchitoches'; Paint; print)

9.  Have cards made of Gator Claus to sell for Christmas (upload image to Photoshop; fix to fit rectangle; print; put in plastic sleeves; price; take to Tres Bien).

10.  Paint another still life from Painting Workshop  (prep canvas; view video; take notes; begin
painting)

My octogenarian parents are moving into a lovely place for folks who need a bit of extra support for living. By October first I will be in their house.  So, there will  be upheaval.  I know how relocating can set progress on art back.  MUST get into a higher gear!