Hooray!

I met with my hand surgeon, who knows how long I have needed but been unable to have this surgery. He is ready to go, and has scheduled my surgery for this coming Thursday, July 24th! I am so looking forward to getting this hand to be less painful and more functional! I know it will be very painful post-surgery, but then I can look forward to a more happy hand and get back to doing what I love...my art! Updates will be posted, one-handed, as I can!

I see it has been six months since I last posted here. It has been such a  mementous six months in our lives. My Tom was hospitalized and rehospitalized for a total of 50 days after my last post. He passed away on May 9th. I have spent the months since in a whirl of business/estate details and lots of soul-searching. As for the past two years, I did very little painting, even less now as I handle all of these details involved when one's spouse dies. I am nearing the end of these estate issues and have been very proud of the fact that I have done everything correctly, it seems, and can get on with my life as it is to be from now on.

I feel that I am in a good place now, over the numbness, disbelief and worst of the painful grieving. I still have my moments, for sure, but they are becoming more bearable. I have to thank all of my faithful friends, of which I have been blessed with many, for helping me through this. Most especially, I thank my twin sister, Sandy, who has been with me so often when I needed her presence. My brother, sister and I took a one-week roadtrip to Texas to visit with oour many cousins there, and that trip provided a wonderful break from all I had been dealing with at home. It was a great rebonding time for we siblings.

I have to have hand surgery soon on my right (dominant) hand, so will probably not be able to paint for awhile once that happens, but do want to return to my more prolific times when I was increasing my painting skills more rapidly. Now, I feel I have lost a lot of skills and instincts after over two years of not painting very much at all.

Please hang in there with me as I work to recover what I have lost in my art. I promise to work on this blog more often, even if it is to show what I am working on, finished or not. Maybe that will allow me to be mroe disciplined?

Blessings to you all...Susan

Maryann's Sunset

This is a painiting for which I used Maryann Watkins special photograph taken at sunset at the Desert Botanical Gardens. I exercised my "artistic license" quite a bit with this since there was no path such as this in the photo, nor was the horizon this shape. What I tried to do was to capture, instead, the moody colors of this particular sunset. I also liked the shadowy blues in the cholla in her photo, so I accented those here. Thanks again to Maryann for her permission to paint from another of her excellent photos.

ArtChix Sale Yesterday

Yesterday I participated in my art group's (ArtChix) art show/sale. It was well-attended, I was especially honored to have an old high school friend attend. It was great touching bases with each other again. An added bonus was my twin sister, Sandy, was there to spend the day with me while we "sat the show". So, Maryann Watkins, Sandy and I had a reunion of sorts. I sold three paintings and enjoyed meeting so many people who appreciated our group's art work.

Maryann was taking photos of my display while there and posted some of them on Facebook. We had a great day.