April Newsletter: Let's paint flowers
News, updates, and thoughts on how life has changed since the first COVID shut downs 5 years ago
Hello, friends!
It really is starting to feel like spring. My hubby and I have dusted off our bikes and gotten out for some rides, the crocuses are blooming in the front yard, and the tulip bulbs I planted last fall have nudged up through the soil and are beginning to stretch up toward the sun.
It was a busy winter, and the busy season is showing no signs of slowing. Five years since COVID lockdowns trapped us all at home, it seems life has resumed the frenetic pace of pre-pandemic times. While I didn’t like being forced to stay home during lockdown, I liked all the free time I suddenly had. I liked having more time to read, to write, to take walks in the woods. And look at me now, filling up my calendar with reckless abandon. At times like these, when the busyness of life threatens to swamp me, it’s tempting to wonder if I learned anything at all from pandemic times, or if I have just reverted back to old habits like that crazy era never happened.
And then I go to my studio and I pick up a paintbrush and remember that before the pandemic, I hadn’t made art since high school. So basically my whole life has changed in the past five years, because art has become a nearly all-consuming passion. Art is literally the first thing I think about each morning and the last thing I think about each night. My favorite TV shows are Landscape Artist of the Year and Portrait Artist of the Year. And yet, before COVID, I had not touched my art supplies in over 20 years.
What happened was this: Being a teacher during COVID involved far more screen time than was good for my health. Being fully remote in the spring of 2020 meant hours each day staring at a screen. Even in the fall when we returned to school, I was tethered to my computer in my classroom because some of my students were at home. If I wanted them to see and hear me, and if I was going to see them and make sure I knew when they needed help, I couldn’t walk away from my desk. And anyway, with social distancing, it made the most sense for me to be fairly stationary.
My primary creative outlet at the time was writing. In fact, I was doing an online MFA in creative writing through Lindenwood University, which meant even more screen time. I needed something to do that didn’t involve a computer.
At first, I ramped up my home baking. I was already an enthusiastic sourdough baker before the pandemic, and once flour was back on store shelves, that was an easy way for me to do something active and screen-free. The problem was only two people live at my house, me and the hubby, and we can only eat so much bread and so many cookies.
So one day I opened up my old art box, a tackle box I have had since my after-school art classes way back in elementary school, I took out my supplies, and used the few things that were still usable. Most were dried up tubes of paint that I had to toss. I bought some new acrylics because that was what I used as a kid, and I started painting. It was great. With paint on my hands, I couldn’t even consider touching my computer or phone, and I didn’t want to anyway. Before too long I bought a set of watercolors and the rest is history.
My most cherished morning routine now is to sketch for a few minutes with my morning coffee. I even wake up a half-hour earlier than I used to just so I can have some morning art time! I have never been able to wake up early to make myself write or workout, but it’s no struggle to do so to paint! Most days I find myself back in my little home studio again the evening, finishing what I began that morning or starting something new.
I’ve filled more than dozen sketchbooks in the past five years and have a bunch more on the go at the moment.
I’ve had paintings in group exhibits. I’ve sold work to total strangers! And now I’m even teaching an adult watercolor class. This summer, I’ve been invited to take part in a four-day plein air painting festival in Maine! Five years ago at this time, the only “art” I’d made since high school was doodles, and look at me now!
I guess I did learn something from pandemic times. I learned that the inner artist of my childhood—my inner child!—is alive and well despite years of neglect, and I should nurture her as often as I can because the childlike joy and wonder of an art practice makes me a better person.
How has your life changed since COVID? What did you take away from pandemic times?
Studio News
I’m deep into this year’s 100 Day Project. This is my third time completing a hundred project, the second time using the “official” 100 Day Project timeline.
Last year, I kept my project quite vague. My guiding theme was “play.” My overall focus in my art at the time was learning to be more expressive, so I decided to use the intention of play for 100 days to see if I could learn to loosen up a bit. Instead of Making Art, I was exploring, having fun—playing!
This year, I am being slightly more specific. This year, my project is to sketch from life for at least 15 minutes a day. I can use any media and any subject, as long as I am working from direct observation. Today is day 37. To date I have used watercolors, graphite pencil, water soluble crayons, charcoal, oil pastel, markers, dip pens—basically everything I own. I have had been having such digging into my hoard of art materials. Here are some pictures from this year’s project so far. You can check out the entire project on my Instagram profile in the 100 Day Project highlights.
While it’s too late to join my spring Watercolor class, I am excited to share that I’m teaching a one-day Plein Air workshop on June 14th (rain date June 16) through Two Bridges Art Academy. You can learn more and register here.
And if you’d like to paint some flowers with me, check out my latest YouTube tutorial!
That’s all for now, friends! May spring bring you many flowers.
Cheers,
Diane