Quandry and being creative

 Well, birthday has come and gone with nothing special to report. Went to Chili's for lunch today and had a wonderful sandwich. Food was delicious, wasn't crowded and Jon enjoyed his food as well. He lamented not being able to buy me a meal for my birthday and I told him I loved him. There will be other opportunities, though I didn't say that at the time sadly. 

Now on to my creative endeavors. Created a few more pieces, a single flower took me a day where a landscape can be two or three days depending on how much I work on it at a time. Time is money as they say and so pricing things in that manner is difficult.

Looks like a photograph right? Well sort of the point really, but would like it to be a little more impressionist looking but then my OCD cuts in and have to keep every little detail. Back away, look at the larger picture and then paint over details that aren't necessary. I'm slowly learning what brushes to use and all the settings. Might even try an actual painted image from an existing photo and see how that works out. I am finding I like doing those kinds of landscapes rather than physical objects or flowers. Though the three flowers I've done aren't have bad either I tend to want to keep them as I photographed them. Why mess with perfection?

Still thoroughly enjoy doing that as it is making my brain work differently and now I look at things around me and outside and think, 'what kind of brush would I use? how would I represent that in a painting? that isn't really black it's dark green'  Pretending to do art and actually doing it are two different things.

Once again applied to local Lowes and they came back almost immediately (within a day or two) of 'we went with someone else'. In other words, my name is flagged as do not hire in their files.

Going to be sending my documents into the DMV to get my real ID on Monday. The process is, gather documents, upload them, DMV will contact back when they've been scanned and approved, then set an in person appointment to get photo taken and ID processed.  Happy Birthday to me! yippee. 3 more years until I can file for retirement. Hoping the amount isn't depreciated by then being out of work for so long. Jon gets his first SS check in ten days, he's been anxious about that and one of the reasons why he was  apologizing for not being able to pay for my birthday lunch. 

Oh speaking of finances, I paid off my credit card, the one I used at Disneyland, got that balance down to zero, yay! Actually  -.19 since I paid $80 and it was actually a bit less than that. Oh well, whatever.  I used that card to buy lunch today and at the end of the month I'll pay that off. Do that every month for the next three or more months and my credit will be zooming. Yay! 

I might have to use it also to take Rocky to the vet. His foot isn't getting any better and I'm out of disinfectant wipes they gave me before. I just don't know what it is that's happened with his feet but am keeping him inside for the next two weeks to see if it improves. Whatever it is might have been something outside. As far as I know they don't even  use fertilzier on the lawn, never seen them do anything other than mow, there's no smell of fertilizer or insecticides so just not sure.

"Canyon Trail"

 

If I remember this one, it was one of my hikes I took before going to Washington a few years ago. What is wonderful about this medium is on the ridge to the right and left there were houses. I just used some paint and blocked them into trees. Only sign of civilization are the trails. Actually not fond of those kind of trails, especially on hot days, absolutely not shade anywhere. By the end of that hike I was hot, thirsty and tired. Took the bus home when I got to a familiar street corner and called it a day. But it is also a very good representation of the colors we have, sages, brown, tan and the evergreen of oak trees and shrubs.

I'm tired of the brown seriously. It's raining and cold in Washington already, if i could sell some art for a few thousand dollars a few times, we'd be set. Yes pay the taxes on that of course but still better than nothing. Oh well.

Other than that, the weather is wonderful fall temp and skies, breezy , clear Santa Ana conditions and that means it will likely warm up during the week or get cloudy. Wind means change of weather. Let's see what the weather app says: 70's to 80's during the day and getting down to anywhere from high 40's to 50's at night. Whoooo! It's Fall y'all!

"Cactus Dahlia"