Jan 03 2010
Seascapes and Laundry
What do painting seascapes and doing laundry have in common?
First … for me … both are just as necessary in my life as breathing. Being from the landlocked Midwest … one would not expect me to have an affinity for seascapes and seascape painting … but rivers or lakes are just as fascinating to me as either the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico – I have not visited the Atlantic Ocean yet that I remember anyway.
I have always loved watching the water .. seeing what critters may be in it swimming or diving or just edging around looking for their next meal. I was never a freshwater fishing person … too boring just sitting there watching the end of a pole waiting for it to bob up & down. Whereas watching the water between hiking around it or next to it was lots of fun … still would be if my RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis) could be reined in and the inflammation downgraded to livable for walking and exercising instead of making me a candidate for passing out just looking at a sidewalk let alone a hiking trail.
Yes … I do seriously miss the marvelously exciting adventures of hiking and biking – I always loved going places and doing things … I am a thin active person trapped in a couch potato body / life at the moment … I keep hoping for a medical miracle … but until I get one .. I will be the one painting those seascape moments of wilderness with no people that held LOTS of silence broken only by the wind, waves and my own breathing.
I have discovered that I can paint seascapes sandwiched in between loads of laundry .. between washer & dryer .. between the second load for the washer … watercolor pencils are easy to sketch out something … go load the washer … brush water over the layer … load the dryer … it makes the time pass VERY quickly when doing laundry and I sometimes wonder where the day went when doing all my laundry … until I look at the amount of painting I have accomplished that day!
I’ve learned that I do not dislike doing laundry now that I am doing something fun between laundry tasks … give it a try and discover watercolor pencils and their magic too!
