My Inner Artist is Working His Way Out

I am getting ready to do some painting this next year.  My mother, my daughter and I like to paint.  But, I haven’t painted for years and I want to get back into it.

My mother got me a beautiful – and very large – easel for my most recent birthday.  It is not in the picture above, but that is a picture of me with a table-top easel doing some preliminary sketching just to get some of the feel back.

Now, to paint, first you have to move back to visualizing the world as an artist does.  That is what I loved with Grannymar’s recent sunset pictures, because she is seeing the world like an artist as when she goes to the countryside and city and does her photojournalism of the sculptures and architecture.  So, last week, I took a series of photos with a camera I carry with me at all times in a cargo pocket of my pants.  And, yes, I tend more to the utilitarian than the fashionable, LOL!

Here are my results.  First, a golden sunset:

Our sunsets gain their beauty from the marine layer over the Pacific and the sun setting below it.  At one stage, they will look golden as in the photo above from my front porch looking West.  At other times, they will look more red:

I’m also drawn to the autumn colors, whether Maple leaves strewn across a grassy area on one of our walks:

Or our tree out front showing its autumn beauty through our front window:

At other times, I will be drawn to a more surreal setting like this picture off of our patio of the moon in the clouds seen next to our solar powered Japanese style lantern:

At others, it will be a spontaneous response to something that catches the eye in the moment, like this seagull flying overhead:

It is gradually coming to focus for me and I will have plenty of subjects to consider.  This is a form of meditation for me.