The Dirty Clothes Fairy

When Dean was a young boy, his older brother was glad to tell him that there is no Santa Claus and I think that his mother disabused of the notion of the Easter Bunny but no one told him that there is no dirty clothes fairy. That would be the fairy who picks up your clothes, takes them to the basement to wash them, gets them dried, folds them lugs them back upstairs and places them neatly in the proper places. Today I told him. He was broken hearted. Poor baby, he thought that if you dropped your dirty clothes in a pile the dirty clothes fairy always came by. Sometimes his pile was beside the hamper. After today, no more piles. We'll see how that works.

I have found a place to paint where both hands and feet are warm. Both. At the same time. It is the living room. and there lies a little story. Yesterday Sandy told us that she had thought of a word for each of us and she shared it as she went around commenting on and helping with our work. My word was "Style". Sandy said that when I try to do things like other people do, or work more realistically the results are just so-so (those are not her exact words, but we were standing in front of one of my not so good efforts and she pointed to it.) But, she said, "if you work in your own style you are going to come up with work that will give people shivers". That was her wording. I was much encouraged and also aware of the hard work I have to do. Hard work that will be challenging and fulfilling. I am so excited, and feel such a responsibility.



When I told Dean he suggested that I set up studio in the living room and later last evening mentioned that I seem to get much more work done when I am in here. Yes, I do. It helps to be warm, near the coffee, running water and the loo. The studio helpers are better, too. Instead of a wasp, I have the dogs and Dean. He is watching TV in the other end of the room, but I just tune it out . Then again, when one of the few programs I watch comes on I can take a break.


Here is the new studio, right by the front door. I will have to keep it reasonably clean, but we really don't have much drop-in company  or even much company of any kind. We plan to put new efficient gas logs in the fireplace so I will be toasty. There is a chair under the small window where I can sit and contemplate or read or have a cuppa. As you can see, there is nice light during the day and in the evening I have another lamp that I can pull near. I will bring an easel in to prop up things for viewing and the kitchen is close by for waxed paper, cling wrap, etc. as well as water for brushes and to drink and the coffee.







I don't know why these pictures don't have "handles" so you can arrange them as you wish. I am not going to rant again, but I do find it frustrating. If any of you know a way to work with this, please let me know. 
Here are two of the pieces I worked on last night. I think the girl in the wind is done for all practical purposes. There might be a stroke here or there to add, but mostly I am happy with her. What shall I name her? She reminds me of Jane Eyre or Cathy (Wuthering Heights). The one above, un-named, still has some work to be done that I hope I can get right. We have one more class and then I plan to take some time and work on building on what I have learned with private or semi-private consultations with Sandy from time to time.



By the way, Blogger has some interesting features and one is that you can see where in the world people have clicked on your blog. Would you believe India, Australia, Germany, France, USA, Indonesia and United Kingdom? Hello to everyone, thanks for reading.

XOXOXO, Caroline

Comments

Vicki Styons said…
Just curious about how you mounted your graphics on the teal background and how you made the rectangles of it without graphics. Disregard that last question as the graphics just appeared on the teal spots. Guess they were just slow to load. Glad you are toasty inside and have the "necessary" nearby. Now I feel guilty that having all those comforts, I have not been painting! Perhaps I'll get busy today. You are so dedicated and I am so lazy! At least we are both so something:-)

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