I was hoping to finish my pet portrait today but I think I’m going to sit with it and see if I can make some improvements. It’s a decent painting right now but I think I can make it better.
I haven’t been posting pictures of my house portraits because I didn’t want them to be public before the clients were able to see them, so here they are. Both paintings were well received and appreciated, so that made me happy. I hope all future deliveries go that well.
There’s a meme going around, actually it’s a New Yorker comic, but it’s a woman sitting on a couch reading and the husband says, “I thought you said you booked us a three-day weekend getaway?” And she says, “No, I said it’s a three book weekend so get away.” Instant classic. I’m about to have a two-day, five book getaway. So get away.
I got Little Women, The Portable Emerson, The Power of Crisis by Ian Bremmer and The Little Women Cookbook. I guess I won’t be reading the cookbook but it looks like it’s got some good stuff in it. I thought it was a brilliant idea when I saw it at the library. There’s something about food described in novels. When I read A Gentleman on Moscow I found the author’s recipe for the pork stew the Count eats at the Metropol Hotel. It was amazing.
This is the beginning if my favorite time of year. It’s still hot but next Monday we’re supposed to have our first cold front. Not that I want it to be cold, I just want it to feel like fall. So perhaps as I spend the next several weeks or so reading Little Women (I did not realize it’s such a long book, 700 pages) I’ll get inspired to make some of the March family recipes.
There are a few recipes I want to make right now, namely drop biscuits and jam. Yum. Also buckwheat pancakes and porridge. Cottage Pie, which looks like Sheppard’s Pie, and Jo’s Gingerbread. I’ll be in the kitchen instead of painting soon, never to return.
I can’t remember the last time I got excited about the holidays. Maybe this year I make an effort to make them special. Neighbors are already decorated for Halloween. I think painting a nocturne of one of them would be cool. One time I had a friend drive me around the neighborhood so I could take photos of people’s Christmas lights. Unfortunately the photographs weren’t clear enough to use as references for painting. I realized I needed to go plein air paint in the evenings if I wanted to capture those images. Maybe I’ll do that this year. Who knows, maybe I’ll get a commission to paint someone’s house at Christmastime.
I’m going to think of more ideas of how I can get in the holiday spirit. Maybe I’ll make some of these recipes from the March Sisters for friends and family. I’m thinking candles, and if it’s cold, fires in the fireplace, walks on cold days, and the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Those are my faves. In the past I have read A Christmas Carol at Christmastime and really got the feels. I’ll find something long and cold and overcast to immerse myself in when I finish Little Women.