Catch up time

Day 20–30

It’s catch-up time on my 100 Day Challenge.

I know it might look like I just petered out and let it go—but I haven’t. In fact, I’m starting to hit a really nice stride… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Where have I been, and why haven’t I kept you in the loop?

Well, the story goes like this.

I had one very bad, no-good day. In a single day, I lost a very nice check for a mural job—you know, the kind where you have to call the client, explain what happened, and ask for another one. Not fun. Then, my computer kaput… just completely gave up the ghost. Yes—on the very same day.

Cue the mad dash to recover photos, bookkeeping, and everything else. Thankfully, my husband is pretty adept with technical issues and managed to get things backed up. Crisis (mostly) averted.

Then… as I finally sat down in my jammies with a sigh of relief, my phone made a very alarming noise—not the usual emergency alert, but something different. I looked down and saw: “Please take immediate cover.”

Because of the kind of day I was having, I hadn’t been paying attention to the line of thunderstorms rolling through. Apparently, they were bringing some serious wind. They said “tornado,” but having lived in Missouri, I tend to think, eh, Louisiana just has strong winds…

Well—when the power went out immediately after that alert, I decided to take it seriously. I sat in our tiny hallway for about an hour. Thankfully, the only casualty was a tree at the back of our property.

So… I ordered a new computer. And then, as soon as it arrived—I got sick for a week. Ha! Life has a sense of humor. My husband, bless him, also needs the occasional reminder to install everything I need on a new computer.

But here we are: I have a working computer, we’re all well, the yard is still beautiful, and yes—my client kindly replaced the check.

So where does that leave us with the project?

Aside from about five days off while I was sick, I’ve been steadily working in the studio. And somewhere around days 20–30, I got completely hooked on painting trees.

The oak trees are just beginning to bud, and they pass through the most beautiful colors on their way to green. There’s also a lovely field near my house with two magnificent oaks, their branches draping gracefully over the landscape.

So, with no further ado—here are the paintings inspired by sketches from my neighbor’s field.

Aren’t they lovely.

They are a follow up to my spring tree below. That I wrote about in my last blog post.

I have moved on to birds and flowers and you can look forward to that update coming to you next week. But I have several tree sketches on my iPad, that I feel pretty sure will become paintings.

Thank you for following along. All the paintings are available HERE.