TOO-O-O-O Busy!!!

Yikes! It sure got busy lately; sadly, too busy to make art!

First, I started teaching again, for the first time in almost three years, at the local community college. General Microbiology. Most of the students in my class are future nursing school students, which I like: I always get a nice bunch of people.

Class started two weeks ago. But then, ONE week ago, I came down with a (mostly) chest cold. Good grief!! You'd think a microbiologist would be able to avoid getting sick, but not necessarily. I didn't even go out or have contact with people at the time I would have contracted the virus! So I have no idea where I got it.

So, between teaching, preparing for class, grading papers and then being sick (and being just plain tired), I haven't been able to paint much. I hope that changes soon, but it may not until the semester is over -- six more weeks. (Summer Semester uses a compressed schedule, so it isn't as long as a "real" semester otta be).

Meanwhile, I'll keep fighting off this cold, enjoy getting an actual paycheck for awhile, and get back to painting ASAP. Be back soon!

A Cold Virus

"The Year's at the Spring..."

My latest painting is not my usual image of the southwestern desert. Although I want to continue produce scenes of the arid country I love, I sometimes feel that I need to have other types of landscapes, too (since -- believe it or not -- there ARE people who don't like the desert!!)

The Year's at the Spring -- All's Right with the World

I...uh, "borrowed" the title from a work by 19th century artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema who, in turn, may have adapted some lines from Robert Browning's Pippa Passes. It's springtime in the rolling hills north of San Luis Obispo, California -- specifically, this is the scenery of Buellton, Atascadero and Paso Robles in early April. In this ranch country, it's not unusual to see grazing horses (like these) or cattle. California valley quail are more elusive, but they're there -- if you don't see them, you'll hear them!

I'm producing paintings that will not be put up for sale for a while. I want to make sure I have a good collection of pieces to enter in art shows, and I also want to have high-quality digital images made so I can make giclée prints. That's an important angle of the art market I never really pursued.

And since I'll be teaching microbiology at the local community college this summer, I hope to be able to finance some of these art projects.

I think the painting above would look good as a print -- what do you think?