A little bit of nothing

Is it age that’s slowing me down, or is it a realization that all that flurry and fuss for all those years was sort of pointless? I think it’s the latter.
I still occasionally find myself in a flurry and fuss trying to prepare for something, or trying to accomplish something by a deadline (usually my own arbitrary deadline). And then when I come out the other side of it I wonder “wtf was that all about?!?” I will be miserable, exhausted, and feel as if I missed out on the little every day things that make me happy – or even something not so little….like, y’know….. Spring.
Blogging is apparently one of the things that falls by the wayside when life accelerates like that. I used to be able to use my blog to keep track of when I started a mosaic, how long it took to finish, what the challenges were in the process, etc. Not so much over the last few months.
I’m not making any promises, because no one really cares about that but me. But I do hope to get back at it more regularly so I have better records.
At any rate, I’m currently working on a purple/magenta poppy, and hoping to give the
impression that the sun is backlighting the upper part of the petals furthest from the viewer. I don’t know how well this is working – I may need to see some background up against it to determine whether or not it’s a success. If I decide it isn’t, I will probably be impossible to live with for a few days. If you see my husband during that time, please give him a sympathetic look and a word of kindness. Better yet, buy him a beer.

I didn’t work on the poppy mosaic much this last week because my air conditioning in the studio wasn’t working, and having the fans on at high speed dried out the thin set too fast. Instead I decided to get out the watercolors again. It’s been a really long time, and I miss them. This one is tiny – 4” x 5”. I actually drew out the design for another one, of Primrose Carousel foxgloves, and might paint it before going back to the mosaic. I grew those in my garden at Hidden Egg Herb Farm ever so many years ago. They are amazing pale yellow/cream flowers with chocolate brown spots on them. I’d like to try a new technique – pouring the background to get a very dark and  intense background without splotchiness. Or that’s the theory, anyway. We’ll see, eh?