Innisfree was on my mind as I finished it.

She thought that it looked like stepping out of the boat into a new beginning. My challenge is there in the last stanza-to keep the painted scene in my mind’s eye, and the peace in my deep heart’s core. I’m not there yet, but I feel like I am on the path to it.

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Painting has taken a lighter turn, as I am drawn to more hopeful images. Just finished this one, in praise of spring, a bit late in the year’s cycle for that, but glad to be feeling a bit lighter. Again, I lost track of the source of the reference photo.

Next up on the art board is a floral. In my watercolor class, there are several other students who do wonderful floral work. I have painted so few. This one hasn’t lost its freshness yet, so I hope it will turn out well.

The local does have been avoiding our property these first weeks of June. I think the fawns arrived a bit late this year. I missed our semi-tame Charlotte, who lives across the street at the nature center that raised her. I took some early morning walks, and saw her at the edge of the meadow, one day with a young fawn prancing about in the tall weeds. I took my sketchbook one morning, and managed some pencil work. I have put this photo in my painting queue. I can see it as a watercolor, let’s see if I can paint it…

I gave myself permission to ask the question, “What do I want?” How do I wish the remaining years of my life to unfold. I was drawn to a youtube channel that suddenly rose to my notice, called The Last Homely House. A kindly woman, about my age, who posts about her quilting, spinning, sewing, knitting, gardening. She always looks so genuinely kind and happy to be doing what she is doing. I am pulling multiple creative pursuits close to me again, with wide open arms.

Been sewing a lot. I started a blue and white quilt, because blue is my most soothing color. This will take me quite some time to piece.

I took a side road into a colorwash scrap quilt by Terry Rowland after seeing it at the Last Homely House.

I jumped in on a mini-mystery at my favorite quilt shop. I bought a bag making kit there and finished it. I bought templates to make a table runner. Suddenly my quilt room was a chaos of color.

I remembered a truth that my depression had hidden from me. Creativity is my self-care.

I have two projects on my knitting needles, one a charity hat, and the other an intricate colorwork hat for myself. I am trying to finish up my anxiety-driven granny squares.

I do well enough crafting on my own, but need to socialize occasionally among other multi-crafty people. I reached out to a Saturday group I had been part of for years, but fell away from during the years my mom’s health was declining. I was welcomed back yesterday with warmth. Someone walked into the coffee shop, saw us with our needles and hooks humming and ran out to get her project bag from the car, and we widened the circle. Yarn people at the best.

How do I free up time to do all this?

Offloading some household tasks onto the shared responsibility list. Simplifying meal prep. Menu planning so that I need fewer trips to the grocery store each week. Getting up earlier and cutting my scrolling time way down. Understanding what meaningful self-care is for me and embracing it, protecting it, nurturing it.

I might do a remedial pass through the Artist’s Way. Let me know if you wish to join me.

How are you? Do you feel that life has pushed you too far outside of your true self? Are you seeking the way back?

Here are some good resources:

• A Light in the Chaos

• The Restoration Project

• The Quiet Work….

  @thewayback2ourselves

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May all that is unforgiven in you,
Be released.

May your fears yield
Their deepest tranquilities.

May all that is unlived in you,
Blossom into a future,
Graced with love.

by John O’Donohue

I think the stormy scene resonated with me after this difficult year of cancer in our family. We thought the treatment was done and it was time to turn the page, but intense headaches necessitated a brain MRI. Two weeks of stress between ordering the MRI and getting the results. Thankfully there were no obvious metastases, but the headaches persisted. We think they are now abating with the simple addition of aspirin.

The waves feel like my life, and there is no safe harbor here. I am the rusting boat, still afloat.

This was the last thing I completed my adult education watercolor class. It is quarter sheet size, and that much blank paper tends to make me anxious, with the inner critic constantly telling me I have no clue how to paint something this large.I have done too much work this year in postcard and small sketchbook pages. Over all I am proud of this painting. There are a few things I would change, but everyone who has seen it feels the power of the storm. I feel more confident after this one.

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I moved on to address two of my main difficulties in watercolor: people and architecture. This one is yet to be finished. Needs some edge smudging and unpainting/repainting. Actually, it really needs to be started over, but I seldom paint the same subject twice. Too many great subjects, too little time.

Getting back to the stress of May 2026, I have been taking steps to address it in healthy ways.

Firstly, at the age of almost 69, I decided to seek out a therapist, to learn more about my unhealthy stress responses and where they came from. And hopefully to learn better healthy coping mechanisms. This week’s homework is to use transitional breathing as I move from place to place or situation to situation so that my focus is more immediate instead of dragging the past into the present and the present into the future.

Secondly, I have started to get back ito my tactile fiber art crafts because the repetitive motions of knitting and crocheting are soothing. I finished some small projects. For self-care, I splurged on an interesting fair isle colorwork knitted hat for myself. I haven’t made any hats this year for the annual winter coat drive at church, so I cast on a crochet beanie as well. It’s a good mindless project to balance against the charted colorwork.

Color therapy, wherever I can get it. Started a new quilt, Bonnie Hunter’s Rivanna which requires intense concentration to get all those triangles pointing the right way to make the larger design. Blues are my happy colors. My progress thus far:

After getting a clean bill of health from the cardiologist, I am still trying to get my exercise regimen back on track. I do some weight training in the basement at home and aim for one gym session to use the leg press and decline bench press machines. This morning, I was awake early and at the gym before 5:30 am. It was not too crowded, no wait for the equipment I needed to use. I’ve got to get in more cardio though, either walking or on the treadmill.

I don’t feel like I am fully back on track yet. I am shifting into a daily schedule that puts creative time earlier in the day, before tackling the household drudgery. We also did some bulk meal prep last week so cooking every evening is not so onerous. I honored my commitment to myself by starting my cleanup/decluttering in my sewing room. It’s got to be ME first more often to get out of this stress overload.

I have my sketchbooks in my car, and hopt to do some more suburban sketching soon. I have done some small waiting room sketches in pencil, but nothing worth showing, it just counts as practice and recommitment to drawing as a foundational skill.

I have prattled on long enough. I am sorry that I have been quiet in May here on substack. I don’t know if I will settle into a regular posting rhythm, but I hope to post soon when I am done with the cityscape.

Thanks for reading. What have you been up to? Do you have a plan fro the summer, any special creative project? Let me know in the comments.

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I got stuck for a while on this next one. It was off to a great start, then I became very anxious that I would ruin it before finishing it. So much of watercolor still seems out of my control. I am learning to focus more on the relationship between the water on my brush and the wetness of the paper. I am very pleased with this one. I am shamed to admit I don’t remember where I got the reference photo for this. I will not put this up for sale, I intend to frame it for my home.

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I opened up a floral painting class I had purchased from Shari Blaukopf last spring. My sketching and ability to abstract to a pleasing level of loose painting is still a big struggle for me.

So what’s next? I am grappling with a very moody and stormy dock scene, stuck on how to render the colliding swells with some change in perspective from the foreground to background that does not look contrived. I am watching many youtube videos by Thomas Schaller, whose work I love. I can see how doing a value studey and starting from a good sketch, directly on watercolor paper are critical steps.

Hopefully my next update will include that along with a review of a mini set of Winsor & Newton tubes I bought as a pick me up. I am still working hard shedding the last of my winter blues. Color always helps.

I can see that I made more time for art in April, worked on some languishing needlework projects, and spent a little time at my sewing machine. It’s been a slow recovery.

How has your April been? What’s blooming for you?

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The quality of the paintings is very uneven. Some views were just very difficult to capture in gouache. Perhaps I should have lifted the constraint of a single medium.

I used a variety of papers, some 100% cotton and some cellulose. I used a 48 color set of HiMi jellycup gouache. I began to drift away from painting my gouache totally opaque, and leveraged its ability to flow like watercolor when it suited the subject better.

My last two postcards were Utah and Alaska:

I painted in the midst of a very trying period when we were beset by several serious health issues in my family, a time when my mental health began to crack under the strain of caregiving and worry. It was, at times my only self-care, to grab little interludes of quiet to paint these small postcards.

There were many points at which I just wanted to stop, I couldn’t see a way to finish all 50, and it became a nagging to-do item hanging in the back of my mind. I am glad I persevered though.

I remain aware that our history includes both shame and pride. I hold in my heart both hope for our future and sadness about our past and current state. I pray that we can heal our divisions and injustices. Doing this project has given me at least the beginning of some ability to hold frustration and compassion in my heart at the same time, both for my country and the people in my life.

So what’s next? I can take some lessons forward from this project. In no particular order, here they are.

1. -There are days when it is better for me to avoid journaling, and get right to swiping a brush across paper.

2. -Let the subject dictate the art medium

3. -Fewer colors make for a better painting

4. -I am not living a life of establishing daily habits or keeping a streaks. I am in a period of recovery, but I don’t know if I will ever try to do so again. I have too many interests and enjoy asking the day what type of therapeutic creativity would be best.

5. -Creativity is not always intended as therapy, but it always provides a sense of satisfaction and calm, even when the outcome misses the mark

6. -Never use colors out of the box, as a dab of its complement makes everything more interesting

7. -Substack bullets are not working for me today

I am midway through my adult ed watercolor semester, so expect to see more watercolor work soon. I have returned to sketching in pencil and pen and I keep my sketching material handy in my bag and in my car. I have been getting to my appointments a few minutes early and I sit in my car and sketch what is in front of me.

Do I have a favorite from my fifty paintings? No, there are many that I love, and a few that I should have scrapped and done over. How about you? If you watch the video, tell me which one or two you like the best.

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However, I am taking some preliminary steps to get out of the mired down life.

• Paring down my morning scrolling time. At my desk with my third cup of coffee (don’t worry it’s half-caf) to do morning pages. I can’t seem to make three pages yet, but I write a little bit more every day.

• Cleaned up my desk and art supplies, as well as my sewing room so that there is less clutter to sap my energy.

• The recent closure of my local gym had thrown off my exercise schedule, and the remaining gyms are too crowded now, so I am moving my strength training back to the basement, where we all exercised happily during covid lockdowns. It’s a timesaver since I don’t have to take the 20 minute drive to and from the gym. the gym that closed is five minutes away.

It’s all good. I am breathing freer, sleeping better, and even getting small bursts of decluttering and cleaning done elsewhere in the house.

So, here are my three latest gouache postcards.

Which of these do you like the best?

Are you feeling an energy change with the unfolding of spring weather and views?

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On a personal front, there are still some health concerns for immediate family members, and a first cousin has died. In mourning that loss, I can’t help thinking about the preciousness of my remaining years. I am clawing back my creative time from the quotidian tasks of cooking and cleaning. I am working to tame my screen addiction. I spent the better part of my morning coffee time reading an actual book and took a time-limited peek at social media before settling in at my desk to write this brief update.

My 50 states gouache project is coming along; I only have ten more to paint due to some good sessions this week. The eastern half of the country is now complete.

I am using a 4 x 6 Fluid 100 100% cotton 140 lb hot press Postcard block and a nearly spent HiMi jellycup set that I am about ready to toss. The paint seems somewhat slippery on this paper and I paint over everything twice.

I hope to finish a larger watercolor in my adult ed class this week and devote more time to watercolor for a while. I feel so much pent-up urgency to do all kinds of art, and am struggling to simplify my daily schedule to find the right pockets of time. Small paintings are easier to accomplish in an empty hour. The larger quarter-sheet watercolors require space and enough quiet time for focus.

Abundant thanks to all the new subscribers and everyone who posted congratulations on my note about getting in to the art show. It strengthens my commitment to make more art, to study, and practice and log the brush miles. Brush mileage with attention to basic skills and composition is important, but brush time is also self-care and therapy.

So how are you doing? Does your creative practice need a tune-up to get past winter sluggishness? Do you have tips and techniques that help you protect and expand your creative time? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

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I started February with high hopes of rising energy. By midmonth, things had taken a turn. Fatigue, slight shortness of breath, and chest “tightness.” I can’t call it pain, because it does not even come close to real pain, like natural childbirth or bone on bone knee pain, both of which I have experienced in the past. To be honest, any chest discomfort evokes the trauma of seeing my father in the grips of a heart attack when I was 14. So it is very tough for me to break through the anxiety whenever I feel this way.

When it was at its worst, it was not during exercise, it was the day after exercise. It was being out in the cold. Went to the ER once, and the heart indicators were fine. Followed up with the GP and he said it’s dehydration. I get involved in some creative activity and forget to keep up my water intake most afternoons. I dutifully followed up with the cardiologist and she has me booked for some tests on March 4. Trying to take it easy easy til then.

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Let’s hope it was just the deferred effects of a very stressful year, with all the family medical issues.

Art Updates

I am determined to finish my 50-state postcard challenge, but time and energy have slowed my progress. Here are the two latest. There are only 13 to go.

That makes 37 done. I have one more East of the Mississippi (Ohio) to complete then I move on to the western USA, where I already have a few done. Will I finish in March? I am going to push for that goal.

I did some pencil sketching, but I consider it a warm-up and habit-repair, and not something I will bore you with. I had to remind myself that there is always a view to sketch so I sketched an iv pole at the cancer center, my patient’s foot sticking out from under a blanket, and my take-out coffee cup on a side table. Happily, the end of the trips to the cancer center is almost here for our loved one.

Ruminations

I am drawing some conclusions from this self-challenge. Yes, it’s best for me to do self challenges, rather than sign on to the popular ones like inktober and the hundred day project. I thoroughly enjoy seeing everyone’s postings for these challenges, so I send a sincere thank you if you are doing them. I also realized it’s time to:

• Start painting in a larger format than a postcard. During the lockdown I even did art trading cards, because I found a nice group online to share with through the postal system. I would say that 5x7 or 6x8 is the smallest I would like to do unless I am just doing a study for something larger.

• Start painting in oils and open body acrylics. Gouache has its strong points: (water cleanup, portability, use as both a transparent and opaque medium), but its challenges (value shift when drying, hard to paint over without picking up the color beneath)

• Pick the subject first, then the medium. In my search for reference photos, I picked some that should have been mixed media or watercolor or oils. If I self-challenge in the future I should do a subject, like a seasonal challenge, or florals, or limited palette, but paint in what the scene demands.

• Mixed media is not a bad thing. Well-done, it doesn’t scream mixed media, but sometimes a little in a watercolor painting makes sense. So does mixing acryl gouache with plain gouache. I have used this for skies or for toning the paper in a gouache project.

My watercolor class at the adult education department of our school system begins in a week. That gives me a few hours a week with a quiet place to paint in good company. You may have seen my note that this painting was accepted into our town art council gallery. It was just juried in by the staff, not a paid judge, but still it makes me feel like a legitimate artist after years of practice.

So, stressful weeks ahead with tax returns, health woes, and lingering snow, but on the bright side, I am grateful for:

• Valiant daffodil shoots slowly winning the war on snowfall.

• Ever lightening days

• Walks down muddy roads in the nature center, where deer can be seen and birdsong heards

• Art and music

• A head full of ideas to put into action

How about you, what are you looking forward to in the next few weeks?

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I only did one more state in my postcard challenge this week, Pennsylvania. Because my quilting energy is also making a comeback, I made it a barn quilt scene. These handpainted quilt blocks are common in parts of rural America. This is a relatively simple block known as Monkey Wrench or Churn Dash.

I started venturing out to a Tuesday art group at our town library when schedule permits. It provides a quiet, cat-free space of about two hours of painting time. It took several sessions and some cleanup at home to finish this 9x12” version of a scene I had painted earlier on a 4x6” postcard. The postcard was purchased by the very talented Janet Asante Sullivan, who saw it on my substack. I think the smaller version turned out better. I used acrylics, mixing most of the snow and sky with an open body white that slows the drying time.

I thought I needed a skills stretch and attempted some small (3x3”) florals. I am not good with florals in any medium, as these photos show. I did not use slow drying acrylic this time figuring I could work quickly enough on this small scale. I guess I should clean up the edges on the daisies and get a better value range on the roses. I was working with alizarin crimson and cad red, and it was so lifeless when i tried to add white to get a lighter value, so I mixed a bit of lemon yellow into cad red first, then added some white. Those flowers still look lifeless to me.

I really need to make the switch to oils, but we are short on space at present and I need a cat free room where I can open the windows in the spring to allow for ventilated work and drying.

Self-observations:

• I try to force gouache to behave like acrylics and oils and sometimes watercolor, but gouache no longer frustrates me.

• I wish acrylics behaved more like oils. I don’t like all its hard edges.

• I am content to let watercolor be watercolor and let the water work its will with the paint. I feel like I am advancing in my skills easily and plan to enter a recent watercolor in an art exhibition.

I am happy to keep gouache and watercolor in my art toolbox. Is it too early to give up on acrylics or do I just need more practice?

Should I try to do these two florals, or any florals in oils and see if I feel better about the result?

Do I need to take a class, or can I work with some decent free videos? Or just carve out a month to do small studies in oils every day, if possible?

Thanks for reading. Advice very much welcome in the comments.

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I have been plugging along on my 50 state postcard self-challenge this week. I am past the halfway point. I finished three the other day, or at least thought I did. I thought this palmetto portrait for South Carolina was done. I photographed it but did not post it anywhere. When I looked at it the next morning, I saw one major compositional blunder. I fixed it this morning, two days later. Can you spot the big difference in these two photos?

Sorry the second one is a bit blurry. I tried to put them side by side, but the gallery format wanted to be square and not show the whole postcards.

There were other value adjustments made as well.

Pausing and stepping away gave me opportunity to see what was needed.

Here are the two others I did this week.

Pausing in Crisis

A crisis intervened in our week here at home, and pausing was key to my ability to get through it and past it. Let me explain.

Our oldest child is turning the corner on a horrific year dealing with the spouse’s cancer treatment and recovery, as well as their living apart to avail themselves of the best care, only together on the weekends. A long commute every week through bad weather. A worsening situation on the job. Winning praise from all sides for getting through the year under great strain. Until our child wasn’t. Sudden onset of horrific uncontrollable tremor and agitation.

Watching this through the triage window was more than I could take. My pulse was nearing levels that found me in this same emergency room a few years ago. I had to close my eyes, retreat within, and start humming hymns under my breath to get my pulse down. Thankfully, the situation calmed down after a few hours, and it hasn’t recurred. The power of the pause.

But it drained me more than I anticipated. I had to pause for two days, to recover lost sleep and emotional equilibrium. Now I am ready to take back the reins of my daily life.

For most of my adult life, I powered through work and stress by force of will and a talent for multitasking. All-nightstudy sessions in college, grueling long days at work.

In my old age, I am relying on the power of the pause.

• Pause to ponder.

• Pause to process.

• Pause to heal.

In 2023 I wrote about creating a physical Walden zone for pausing. While I still like the idea, I think it’s more important that I develop and rely on the skills of finding that still spot in my own body and mind so that it is available to me in places like hospital waiting rooms.

Pausing Trends and Advice

Good news, too late for me: perhaps the workplace is learning the power of the pause, with leadership advice that can benefit all of us:

I see great hope in the younger people in the workforce who are standing up for their mental health in ways I never dared to.

Pause for nourishment. Pause in nature. Pause with Music. Pause with poetry. Pause with pets. Pause on a walk or on a yoga mat. Pause for your life. Pause for and with your art.

Here are some good reads on the power of the pause:

• Taking Time to Reset: The Importance of Pausing to Recharge – Simply Solved Consulting

• The 5 Minute Pause

• The Quiet Power of Pausing

• Pause to Heal your Body

• Pausing before Life Takes Over

It’s humbling that my old cat understands and practices the power of the pause. I envy the ease of his daytime napping.

How about you—do you find it easy to pause? Do you pause before the burnout hits? Do you have a regular habit built into your day for the pause? Drop me a comment.

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All creative pursuits shut down in the final week before Christmas. The week between Christmas and January 1 was one of rest and recovery, and weaning off of rich food and sugary treats. January began with cold and sneaky unforecasted snow dustings. We are in a warmer week with rain before it chills down again.

I felt driven to finish paintings I started near the end of the year. First, a quarter sheet sized painting of poinsettias. A bit overworked, but it’s pleasing nevertheless. Maybe I will use it for next year’s holiday cards. A very year end vibe with leaves and petals beginning to fade.

Then I rolled up my sleeves and worked on my 50 US states postcard project. I am almost halfway through that.

And even though I am almost through all the eastern seaboard, I couldn’t resist a westward foray.

Small tweaks and a Change of Medium

Along the way, I made a switch from using the gouache in a less opaque way for the sky so that the colors flow better. This is speeding up this project for me. Next up is Georgia, then South Carolina. Oh, and I really should do NY soon, with its small coastal presence. I am finding it hard to come up with just one view for my home state.

My creative curiosity is pushing me to do some bigger works in other opaque media: acrylics and oils.

I turned first to acrylics but invested in some that are more blendable. My past attempts in acrylic were giving me insufficient time to achieve soft blends in the sky and distant views. There is a solution to this problem though. I ordered some open body acrylics (no affiliation), with their slower drying time. I can also mix them with regular acrylics, to slow their drying time. If you’d like to experiment with this, just order a tube of titanium white and use it in your sky and cloud blends to experience the difference.

I had done this scene in gouache a while ago from a reference photo. Here is my acrylic rendition. I love the sky, but all in all, the composition is boring. I actually like parts of my gouache version better.

I also plan to get into oils this year.

So, I know I ended the year intending to only post once a month, but with all this art to share, I thought I should send this out today.

This is because some words of the year have possibly found me:

Flexibility and Experimentation

They are the answers to these questions, which I didn’t actually ask during 2025, but should have prompted me to check in with my psyche.

• Why do I feel exhausted and stuck?

• Why does my creative output seem stale to me?

• How can I wake up my inner child?

And, just like my last post, I will end with a quote from Thoreau:

Thanks for reading! Did you adopt a word or words for 2026, or are you waiting for words to find you?

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I am sure I had plans and intentions at the start of January, but three weeks into 2025 health issues cropped up here and there in the immediate family. All seems as well as can be after treatments but striving to continue daily habits and practices gave way to providing care and comfort and sometimes just quiet presence. These are the most important things.

I miss my art, my quilting, my journaling, and spending time reading all of your wisdom on Substack. I have stolen an hour or two here and there, but in these last days of 2025 I am so very tired that I am spending a lot of time resting, looking out the window, petting my old cat, and reading books.

I enjoyed getting back to my watercolor class and here is the last painting I did, from a photo by James Burke over on facebook. I chose more expressive colors for the trees, placing them in the quinacridone coral light of early morning, the light I see so often on the eastward edge of my own trees at home.

I am very pleased with this one and will frame it. Skill wise, I think I am moving in the right direction and I know what I need to strive for next.

I think there is a change beginning to happen in me that helped me to forge my own path and paint this in the way it came together. Let me explain.

If I walk into this scene, I am heading toward that gate into 2026, passing the tangled briars and dreary gravel-strewn snowbanks of my 2025 into a blank field where the path and obstacles are unseen and unknown. It’s a bit scary for me, as I am prone to excessive worry and racing what-if thinking. The light is already there, the light will always be there, in that vast unknown expanse of 365 days. I hold fast to the light of hope.

When I was younger, I wanted to know what the coming year would be like. I planned goals and tasks and ticked off items on a list. Grasping at control in a vain attempt to quiet my racing mind. And maybe all of that grasping was preventing me from joyfully and peacefully experiencing whatever the days brought. Frustration abounded when I had too much of an agenda:

It’s late and I haven’t done my sketch practice.

I’m tired and I haven’t written in my journal today.

I am old now, old enough to know so much of life is outside my control. Old enough to know that the light will always shine through, perhaps not every day, but often enough to carry me through the days and months ahead. And perhaps there is more peace and satisfaction to be found in just seeing and feeling the light than I have ever experienced in striving to achieve daily goals.

While I was writing this, a quote from the end of Thoreau’s Walden popped into my head.

“Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.”

I think that my hyper focus on resolutions and goals and sticking with habits has prevented me from being fully awake in my own life at times. This is what I hope will work well for me in 2026, your own approach may vary. I’d love to read about it in the comments.

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Thanks for reading. Wishing you peace and delight in the coming year.

I feel ready to dive back in, hoping that the wise words of Ovid are true:

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop. – Ovid

Here is what I have made so far in the watercolor class. It is a master study with a very different approach to the foreground. Original artist signature is indecipherable.

The winter scene that I finished at home today is my favorite and I will frame it.

My earlier works from this class.

I started back in on my 50 states gouache project, and am calling it quits on this little winter scene of a Rhode Island church. I have re-blended that sky three times, it is time to move on, even though my steeple is a bit wonky. The reference photo had the morning sun’s peachy glow just hitting the steeple, and that’s what I was aiming at, primarily.

While I was resting, I screenshot loads of reference photos from around the country, so I hope to continue this project through November. I am almost halfway done.

What else am I up to?

• Reading:

  • Time of the Child by Niall Williams: great character sketches and interconnections and an entertaining plot. I picked up another book by Williams at the library today. My eyes are so tuned to reading across the small page of my Kindle paperwhite. I think dormant muscles might be at the root of my diplopia. So tracking along the wider page of an actual book is something I need to do more of.

  • Weathering by Ruth Allen. I need to get back into this one. Perhaps this quote is best in tune with my November, although I am not feeling much poise and gracefulness:

    • “Resting-in-place is something rocks do very well. They are not impervious to being shaken around and disturbed by the prevailing conditions in their environment, but it is in their nature to return to repose as soon as possible – to achieve a steady state in their place – that lends them an effortless poise and gracefulness”
      ― Ruth Allen, Weathering: How the earth’s deep wisdom can help us endure life’s storms

    • I made my reading list for 2026, but I forgot to take it to the library today. I will let you know what’s on the list next month.

• I am Adventing. In so many ways it is my favorite time of year. The more I distance myself from the frantic consumerism that surrounds me, the happier I am. Music to learn, reflections to read and internalize, warmth to share, wild animals and birds to feed, longer shadows lasting longer into the daylight while the sun moves in a lower arc. And maybe some snow. I love to paint snow scenes, the blue shadows make me happy for some reason.

• Getting back to my workout schedule after the cold and the back injury, I want to add walks on my rest days, I’ll go walk the mall if it’s too cold.

• Napping blissfully with the cat some afternoons as the sun nears the western horizon

I can’t seem to manage carving out long stretches of painting time at home due to distractions and a cat who craves a warm lap for his naps. I have done reasonably well at watercolor class and I am trying to get some of the other students to come to an open art group at the library. I tried it once and the people were a bit standoffish, it seemed. I might enjoy it if I had some people I already knew to sit with.

The month ended with two Thanksgiving celebrations, one as a guest and a smaller one as the host for my little immediate family of 5. We have had some medical successes this year to be thankful for, so there was much more gratitude to celebrate.

Enough about me, how about you, are you feeling frantically rushed or are you waiting in calm and joyful hope this December? Drop me a line in the comments!

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Winter. Yes it is making itself known, gently and reminding me that it is time to step in tune with the fallow time of the earth, a time when the appearance of stillness and chill hides the deep inner work below the ground. I never quite manage to shuck off the consumerism and revelry that beckons in these last weeks of the year. I often joke that I would like to run away to a cloister at this time, for silence and peace. Thankfully, there are quiet trails just outside my door that serve the same purpose.

The animals are grazing and hoarding to prepare for the cold weeks. Charlotte shows up some mornings, nose at our patio door, waiting for some apple slices.

No visits for days and suddenly there she is, with her two young twins, winter coats fully grown in. I thought she had found a new family closer to home, with better apples to share. In my heart I let go of her, hoping that her new friends had children who would forever remember the magic of touching and feeding this tame imprinted doe who was raised by our local wildlife rehab. A few days later she comes alone, in the twilight, just as I was leaving for choir practice. I drive away so slowly and carefully while my husband feeds her. I do not want to have a run-in with her children.

October’s End

October moments, pauses that I can’t resist, even in my crush of obligations and chores. An irresistible invitation to slow down, to winter, to be fallow and let inspiration and insight surface.

I love the way the light comes in low, morning and evening. I saw how the rays touched some branches of coral-peachy leaves in the midst of trees still green. I thought I should run upstairs for my camera, but I knew it was a fleeting moment, so I just walked outside to watch the light slowly fade and put the colors to rest for the night.

Facing an impending Noreaster, I decided to take a midday walk. Noonday light caught the colors on the early side of peak color.

Perhaps the seed of a mixed media painting here:

In the garden, someone made a nook I hadn’t seen before, with a few boulders for sitting and a bowl of nature elements to meditate on.

No, I do not need a cloister. All these is here, a ten minute walk from my front door.

A Perfect Day: Painting and Music

Watercolor class in the morning, enjoying see everyone’s images come out of the paper, and finishing my first project of this session. I am happy enough with it, because I feared I had ignored this medium for too long. I am relieved and eager to press on with it. A singing rehearsal in the evening, again, a twofold joy. Satisfaction at personal ability, grateful for the conductor’s praise of our effort.

A Return to Watercolor

We do a lot of master studies in this class. I don’t often know the name of the artist of the original piece. Please let me know if you know who painted any of these so I can credit the artists.

My first project was very autumnal. I see what needs improving but the colors brought me joy, and relief that I could still keep some control of the water and the pigment.

Next, I was intrigued by how much white space made this a compelling scene. I think I should have had a better sense and sketch of the underlying rocky shore before beginning. Also scale is a problem for me, I have been so used to sketching and painting small that I don’t translate scenes well on to quarter sheets of watercolor paper (15 x 11 inches or approximately 38 x 28 cm).

I gave some thought to what I most struggle with and it’s people and architecture. I based this on some photos in a recent issue of Watercolor Artist (no affiliation) by Shari Blaukopf. I sketched in the figures and then masked them off. I also challenged myself to suggest the texture of the field without painting any individual blades of grass with a liner or rigger brush. I took Shari’s suggestion of toning the paper with a very dilute yellow ochre. I think I would have liked the gray to lean a little cooler, but these are learning exercises and watercolor doesn’t really like to be overworked beyond a certain point.

Only a few more weeks of class. I am struggling to find the right quiet spot for painting with these relatively large sheets of paper and my large palette. I recently cleared off my painting desk I think that with a little more organization of the clutter in this area, it’s doable. My elderly cat companion is content to sleep nearby for longer stretches.

I realize that my creative impulse flows in way too many directions: too many art media, too many needlework pastimes. I am a bit careworn as I near the end of 2025, due to family health problems, and my son and his beloved moving back in for a while as they get back on their feet here on Long Island. We had hoped to move to someplace quieter and less expensive in our old age, but at 70-ish, if we have both our sons in the same general area, I think it’s wise to stay put and try to age in place. Help can flow in both generational directions.

Til December, I wish you also find peace in your days, gatherings with loved ones, and warmth and light in the colder darker days of the year.

Thanks for reading. Would love to read your comments about how you approach this time of year.

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Last week was a busy one, and not only in a good way. Midweek, my daughter in law and I met up to scope out the storefronts where our artwork will be hanging in a monthlong village artwalk starting on 10/10. She has three paintings that will hang in a lovely little gift shop.

My single entry will be in a barbershop window. The owner won’t allow space for an easel, so I have to somehow lean it against the window on a 4-5” windowsill. I am not happy about it because my original entry seemed too heavy to safely sit there in front of chairs where customers waited—possibly fidgety children. I substituted in a smaller work that is not quite as heavy.

On the way home I was stopped in a long queue at a redlight, when all of a sudden BANG! and my head flew forward and rammed back into the headrest. I pulled off the road and the other driver appeared in my window. I said, “I am not getting out of the car until the police arrive.” He was a large middle aged man, and I am ashamed to say that I was frightened. I knew that if he was angry or confrontational that would send my heart racing even further. Luckily I was able to contact my daughter in law. She and my son were on the road nearby, and when he arrived I felt secure enough to get out of the car.

There was no damage to the car and my neck and shoulders felt ok, so we waited for a police assessment and printed accident report and went on our way. I was evaluated and x-rayed at the emergency room, given pain meds and a muscle relaxer before release. I was off the medication the next day and back in the gym on Friday doing my normal strength training routine.

I felt relieved but a bit angry that I now feel so old and frail at 68 that I wouldn’t get out of that car. I really don’t mind the cosmetic changes: the wrinkles the thinning and graying hair. In my head, I still feel so much younger, but the body does not lie.

• I have less energy

• I fear falling

• I don’t see as well in the dark

• My hearing is compromised

It’s Monday, time to reset and start a new week. I cranked out another postcard before heading to the gym. California this time. Sorry about the misproportioned hiker, I need years of practice in drawing and painting people. Hold that thought.

After the gym, I stopped by the library to see if they had opened the second floor yet. For some reason, perhaps lack of elevator service, they closed the second floor where the nonfiction books are shelved when a flood 14 months ago destroyed the basement level. I so enjoyed roaming the nonfiction stacks again. I returned home with some art books including one on watercolor florals and another on painting animals and people in all media.

Lifelong learning certainly makes me feel young and helps me forget about the ebbing of physical abilities that comes with aging.

When I sat down to page through my initial pile of books, I pulled out my sketchbook and attempted a bit of sneaky art. I think one of the librarians saw me sketching, so I tried to minimize the number of times I looked at them.

Monday can always be a day for a reset, for turning the page and beginning again.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be around on Notes and not publishing and sending a newsletter until month-end or early November.

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I can see my improvement opportunities with this one, but overall I am pleased with my little postcard view of the Portsmouth NH lighthouse.

Here is where I am so far with my USA postcard project:

The past 7 days have also included baking pies for a festival on Saturday, working at that festival, completely finishing a small throw quilt

starting a new autumn tablerunner, learning my part in several choral pieces, and starting back to a weekly watercolor class where I almost finished a good sized watercolor in the first class session. I spent one moring working at the food pantry and making trays of food and then serving at a soup kitchen.

I also squeezed in one decent urban sketching session by changing my morning schedule a bit. I keep a sketch kit in my car, thinking that I can find a location to sketch after the gym. But that hasn’t been happening, so I sketched on the way to the gym on a day when I got out the door early enough. I used a very fine pigma pen to sketch directly. This seemed to work well for me sketching in broken lines to dots I made for the corners of some of the shapes.

All in all, a good week that felt like I achieved the right balance with exercise, creative time, music and service projects. I remind myself that it doesn’t always happen each week, and I am ok with that. I remind myself to take life as it comes, follow my muse and refrain from overcommitment.

I can only attribute this surge of action and positive feelings as my usual autumn rebound.

Here is a great post on how the autumn energy affects us.

Autumn things I loved this week:

• The sound of much needed rain on the fading leaves

• The sound of dry leaves skittering across the pavement

• Watching a single leaf meandering down to the ground

• The low slanting light

• Watching the animals cache food and graze to put on winterfat

• Better sleep and easier recall of dreams

Autumn things I look forward to in October

• Long sleeves and sweaters

• Warm slippers and wool socks

• The heat-seeking old cat looking for lapspace, forcing me to slow down and savor even more moments

• Hot soup season

Autumn things I dread

• Hurricane anxiety

• The rapid descent into consumerism and commercialization of ancient feasts and festivals

• The daily flipflop of hot/humid to cool/dry weather

• The gluttony of Thanksgiving

• Fall allergies, colds, flu

How about you? How do you feel about the changing seasons on the cusp of October?

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A month later I wrote about the importance of writing down the reasons or whys for the tasks and practices we want to keep in our lives.

I expanded on that topic about a month ago.

I decided to try to build a daily sketching from life habit without going through the step of articulating WHY I want to do this, so here goes:

Why should I concentrate on sketching right now when all I really want to do artwise is play with colors?

• It is my weakest foundational skill.

• I can’t make a great painting from a bad underlying sketch.

• Sketching from photos or a screen takes away the task of flattening a 3D view onto a 2D plane-it’s a bit harder for me to sketch from direct view.

• It requires nothing special in the way of art supplies.

• There are very irrefutable excuses for not spending a few minutes sketching.

• Sketching forces my mind to slow down, to see and resee the dimensions, angles, values of the view in front of me. My mind spends too much time at high speed, jumping from thought to thought, or scrolling with speedy fingers.

• Sketching requires mental focus, crowding out the chatter in my mind

• Sketching improves visual memory and strengthens memory retrieval. I can look at a sketch and reminisce about the location and how I felt about what I was doing that day.

• Sketching allows me to share a view with others.

• It’s better for my eyes than staring at a screen. I have to vary my focus from looking up at my subject to look down at my sketch.

A further question arises. I have been sketching mostly in ink recently. Why not pencil things in first?

• Ink forces me to slow down more than pencil which can be erased and corrected. I often look up a second time before putting that pen to paper. Look at the length, the angle, the curvature of the next pen-stroke to be laid down, look at the length compared to the length of what else is already on the page, knowing that there is no going back once the ink is on the page.

My Creative Week in Review

Quilting

Worked on putting together quilt blocks. This needs borders before getting in the queue for quilting. The pattern is Monkey Business by Bonnie Hunter.

Weaving

A weaving project is finally off the loom. Used up a small ball of leftover variegated sock yarn, paired with a fine solid color wool in the warp, and alternated with creamy alpaca. As you can see the different shrinkage of these yarns gave it a different look after being washed and dried. It’s a rather short scarf, but it can be warn inside a coat.

I am sure that my next weaving adventure will be with a heavier weight wool and a longer warp.

50 State Gouache Postcard Project

A few sketches, one indoors and one in a parking lot.

A color study

This is harder than it looks, but still a good meditative practice. Mixing the color is one thing, but getting the saturation right is a secondary challenge.

The leaf had further dried, with color shifts by the time the paint dried enough for the photo.

It’s no surprise that I am feeling better this week, except for a seasonal allergy flare. My mental health is better for several reasons: More creative time, more time decluttering and reorganizing creative spaces, first week back in choir, and time spent working at a local food pantry. Also, more rest necessitated by the drowsiness caused by the antihistamines.

I end the week feeling a little less driven, but more satisfied with what I have accomplished. The rest days were an interlude of fallow time that I needed to free myself from stressing over not doing “enough.”

What’s Next?

The upcoming weeks become a little busier. I will be back in a weekly watercolor class for 8 weeks. Making space for a son and his wife to move back in while they relocate back to the area. The usual annual leaf harvest and getting outdoors to enjoy the last of the moderate weather before the cold and damp weeks of winter descend. I’ll keep working on my postcard project, but I need to get in some watercolor practice before the class starts. I’d like to get at least one smaller quilt done before the winter. There is a hat that an older friend asked me to make for her with some sparkly yarn. I worked on that a bit this morning.

Whatever gets completed, it will be enough.

Thanks for reading.

Thoughtful comments make my day.

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The 21 consecutive day approach has been debunked here. And I am now convinced that gamification was never about developing good habits, it was designed to promote our screen addictions.

I made it past the first week of consecutive-day sketching from life. Life unravelled a bit in the middle of the second week though.

I gave myself a final day of coasting along on September 1, although I managed to sketch halfheartedly to keep my sketching streak going. September 2 was too beautiful a day to waste so I took a walk in the nature center across the road from our house, and found a shady bench from which to sketch part of the main house. Sketching Day 9 was completed before noon.

Earlier I decided to build on last week by layering in a return to journaling after my morning spiritual reading, in those precious quiet hours before the rest of the household wakes up. It’s just me and the cat and sometimes some deer.

Day 10 was a skip day for the sketching habit. My insomnia was bad, and I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep. The only good habit I kept was getting to the gym and doing some strength training. That wiped me out for the rest of the day. I was brain-tired in addition to being physically tired.

I wanted September to be a time to go back to healthy habits for mind, body and spirit. But perhaps not going back in the same way. I no longer wanted to be captive to a rigid schedule.

Let me explain.

What was I trying to achieve by rigidly sticking to consecutive days of sketching?

Improving my drawing skills.

Would missing a day erase the progress I had made in 9 days?

Probably not.

Do I feel guilt or shame?

No. I might have felt frustration in my younger days about failing to keep a streak going, but I’d like to think I am older, wiser and more independent now.

My thoughts skipped on to the value of the act of sketching. The last sketch I had done (see above) was not a prize winner. In and of itself, it showed some improvement in sketching the weird angles of this scene and using broken lines, but it also had a leaning chimney and splodgy paint. However, it was a pleasant half hour after a short walk, spent outdoors in perfect Autumn weather. Time well spent.

As I sketched, I heard a group gathering nearby. They weren’t talking, but there were people trying to vocalize without words. I glanced up and saw it was a group of developmentally challenged young adult men and their caregivers. Some of them seemed able to vocalize only wordlessly.

As I sketched on, I saw out of the corner of my eye one man shuffling closer and then backing off repeatedly. I glanced up and smiled a welcome. He came no closer, but he smiled at me before shyly turning back toward his group.

Then another man came by with a trash bag. I thought he had seen me cleaning my brush on a tissue and was offering to put the used tissue in his bag. Perhaps he had been assigned a job of picking up litter for the nature center.

He just held out his free hand, fist curled but facing me. I couldn’t read the look on his face, but I fist bumped him and he smiled. Then he moved off to catch up with his group who were on their way to visit the owl enclosures.

All this written to say that for me, sometimes the value is not about the sketching at all. Perhaps our wordless interaction made a positive difference in their day, I know it did in mine.

If you sketch in public, do you experience human connection with onlookers?

Have you ever convinced someone else to give it a try?

Please let me know in the comments.

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In conclusion, I now dismiss any pressure to keep up all these habits on a daily basis. On some days, there are responsibilities that must be addressed, friends/family members who require assistance or a listening ear. Some days are for rest and reflection.

My guidelines are non-rules:

• Morning journaling has no word or page goal.

• These little challenges I make up for myself are best left at slow steady progress or abandoned when they become too burdensome.

• When I feel a need to rest, then it’s a rest day, just like the ones I build into my strength training.

So please bear with me as I flit from one medium to another, one challenge to another and I go where my muse leads me on any given day.

Reclaiming Creativity remains free to all readers, but contributions to the coffee fund are always appreciated.

Coffee Fund

Here is some creative output I have managed to complete this week.

Family health concerns have cleared major hurdles, although treatment continues into February. We will be enjoying multigenerational living for a while. If asked for clear advice on making that transition, I would say:

Set clear expectations of who is responsible for what, but be flexible and give grace when things get a little chaotic and messy.

As always, I spent most of August indoors, hiding from bright sunlight, heat, humidity and insects. I am trying to get some of my good habits and creative practices back on track. This week, I hope to pick up on journaling daily to still some of the chatter in my head. Here are some galleries of things that I have started recently.

Sketching from life, not pictures on a screen. Seven days so far! I hope to make it to 21 consecutive days. I am happy to say I finally finished a very small 3x5 sketchbook and don’t want to sketch that small anymore. Should I do a sketchbook tour? It would include the good, the bad and the ugly, for sure.

I have moved a sketch kit back into my car and will try to do more local sketching since it’s cool enough now to sit in the car for a while.

I hope I will have more time to participate in some of the great sketching prompts and live sketch sessions from .

At the end of July, I dreamed up a self-challenge of painting postcard sized gouaches. I am working on Virginia now, here is a peek of a tree in that scene that I am very pleased with.

And here are the other states I have completed so far.

Finally, I am periodically painting color swatches in watercolor with inspiration from . After all, Autumn is the most colorful season here!

So, even though I feel like I am not artsing enough, I have gotten a lot of small things done in the past 5 or 6 weeks. That feels good.

I have not gone on any artist dates, because by the time the museums and libraries are open, it seems silly and wasteful to get in my car, turn on the AC and drive anywhere. I make the short drive to the gym or grocery store as soon as they open at 6 or 7 a.m. before the heat kicks in. Should I just pull down my copy of the Artist’s Way and start all over again?

Last year, I found listmaking somewhat helpful for revving up my activity and getting things done. While cleaning my desk today, I found a list I wrote two weeks ago, and I had barely crossed off half the tasks.

This year, I am finding time to reconnect with people that I haven’t spent time with in a while. I spent hours visiting an older friend who lives alone, mostly just listening and sharing laughter, cookies, tea and hugs. I also apologized for my distance this year while so many family concerns were taking up all my time.

I think my words for September will be:

• Reconnect (with myself and others)

• Savor the colors, the coolness, the sights and smells of Autumn

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Giving thanks is an important tool in my mental health toolbox. It helps me break a spiral of downward thoughts.

Giving Thanks

I am very grateful for some other stack goodness I found this week.

• A beautiful photo essay from Pamela Leavey.

• The #walktosee challenge from Helen Stephens. Looks like I should hook my sketches in to that as I continue to build my sketching from life habit.

• Just something I needed to read about—JOY— from D. Michelle Perry

In spite of all that has gone on this year, the marigolds reseeded in a pot I was too lazy to clean out and refresh last autumn.

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Wise words. Tomorrow, I might just start having my morning coffee in a different chair, one that more directly faces the rising sun. What would make all the difference in your daily routine?

My role as caregiver has ramped down in the recent days so it is time for me to be less reactionary and to rebuild some structure into my schedule. I am frustrated by too many half-finished tasks and creative projects. My morning ritual of spiritual reading and journaling needs to get back on track, along with the bare minimum of self-care.

Although I have mostly given up art challenges, I decided that giving myself one without a time limit would be enough motivation. I decided to do a postcard-sized landscape painting from each of the 50 US states. Here is what I have done so far.

Click any picture to see them fully displayed in a slide show format.

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You can see the fall colors already seeping into my work. I am ready to say goodbye to summer even though I haven’t visited the beach at all. The earliest signs of fall are within sight here, with infrequent yellow and red leaves falling here and there. Normally we don’t see that until mid-August, so it’s a week to ten days ahead of schedule.

I had convinced myself that I only had energy and focus for creative tasks in the morning ours. Creating this little challenge encouraged me to push a bit harder against my afternoon/evening fatigue and inertia to get a bit more art done in the second half of the day. Even if I only spend ten minutes tidying my creative spaces.

Next I need to get motivated to finish several half-finished sewing, knitting and weaving projects. My strategy for that is to return to making To-do lists. Past experience tells me that these can be dangerously demoralizing if I list too many things. I am just going to list the creative, enjoyable tasks, not the boring household tasks. I will get to those chores eventually, and I will be better equipped to address them if I fill my happiness cup first. My happiness cup has been overflowing with the bitter brew of worry, anxiety, stress and frustration for most of this year.

Some helpful notes on the benefits of a daily routine:

Health Benefits of Having a Routine | Northwestern Medicine

Too Much Structure or Too Little?

Benefits on Making Changes to Your Routine

Let me know in the comments if you feel it’s time for a change of routine and what you will be doing to change your daily schedule.

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Thanks for reading.

1. Since coming down with alpha gal allergy from a tickbite last summer, I have not been walking much this summer. It requires long sleeves, arm gaiters, a bandana around my neck saturated with bug repellent, long pants (impregnated with permethrin) tick gaiters over high socks pulled up over the pants cuff and a sun hat. Then a thorough tick check and a shower immediately after the walk. It all seems too much of an effort and twice the amount of time of just opening the door and hitting the trail. I am going to call myself out as being lazy on this issue.

2. The inner critic has taken up the responsibility of dissuading me from art by whispering there is nothing good enough to paint or sketch. She taunts me by telling me I lack the grand views and abundant beautiful garden scenes here in suburban NY. This is a false assumption, there are flowers and paths, trees and fields, streams and meadows and marshes and beaches here. I have tons of photos of them to paint from. I am noticing a pattern.

3. I am still out and about driving a family member to medical appointments. It eats into my time and energy. It’s too hot for car sketching but I did force myself to sketch a few things this week, indoors and out. I forced myself to just point my eyes at anything and sketch it. I have sketching tools in my car again. So here is what I have done this week, sketching directly in micron pigma pens and coloring with watercolor later, because color is my therapy.

Because my mind tends to go negative looking at these things, I forced myself to find the goodness in each of them. So I will say one good thing about each of my drawing subjects.

While waiting in a parking lot when I arrived too early for a haircut appointment:

The electrical grid is something we take for granted in the first world, but I would not be writing to you without it.

While parked on the street witing to pick up family member from an appointment:

The humble and ugly fire hydrant helps to keep us safe.

To force myself out of an idle scrolling session:

Baskets of yarn that hold the promise of keeping many people warm this winter as I keep plugging away at my hats for the homeless campaign.

Thanks for reading. I hate to cut this post short, but the morning is ticking away. There is art to be made, hats to knit and sewing projects calling.

Thanks for reading!