studio days

 In between cups of hot apple cider and steaming pots of beef and cabbage, I've been redesigning my studio to accommodate these larger canvases I think I've been mentioning a time or two.  The oil painting area is set up now, and I've been taking large chunks out of my days to paints swans and trees the sage green grass.  All the things I tend to day dream about.  Then there are those large chunks of time I spend painting houses and children for custom portrait buyers.  Honestly though, a girl can only sit for so long before she needs to get up and go for a long walk with her incredibly handsome husband, whom she misses during his week-long-work-trips across the country.  I love those walks.  They give us a chance to talk about our future, our present, our longing for a family (someday), and what's for dinner.  We talk about our days and what the week ahead holds.  Do you have a time for this kind of chatter with your spouse?  It's so important.  I don't know what I'd do without someone like him to talk to all time.

Oh and speaking of hot cider, can you believe it's almost October?  I can't even tell you how excited that makes me- not just for the perfect weather and Autumn smell in the air, but for a much needed break!  I can't exactly call it a vacation, but I think once October hits my painting life will slow down a bit.  Maybe I'll even take some time off!  Just sit around and drink hot cider and read my new "Shapes and Shadows" book of poetry.  It's older than the hills with crackly yellow pages that smell musty when you lean your nose over it to read.  Copyright, 1898.  I feel like I'm stepping back in time just to hold it in my hands.  Here's the first stanza of a poem in the book called "Dreams":

My thoughts have borne me far away,
To Beauties of an older day,
Where, crowned with roses, stands the Dawn,
Striking her seven-stringed barbiton
Of flame, whose chords give being to
The seven colours, hue for hue;
The music of the colour-dream
She builds the day from, beam to beam.

Do share some of your favorite poets!  I'd love to hear.  Oh, and those are pictures from Picasso's studio and his dog.  Aren't they fantastic?  I'll show you more soon.  Now go and build your day, beam to beam.  :)