First Snow

It's unusual in our neck of the woods to get snow before Thanksgiving, but here we are on November 23 with several inches of the white fluff covering the ground. Last night we had a lot of wind and hard rain until sometime after midnight, when Mike woke up with little white snowflakes blowing through the window onto his face.

 

Snow on my last roses.

We are traveling to Vancouver, WA tomorrow (knock on wood) to spend Thanksgiving with our children and grandchildren. I'm taking the desserts. So this morning I had a mostly empty schedule, with only second pie to make, laundry to move from washer to drier on my list of "must dos."

 

My version of Penzey's Spices recipe for Chocolate Walnut Pecan Pie.

Normally what I'd do with an open schedule would be head to the studio, but I've been feeling ambivalent about my art since a failed painting two weeks ago. But this morning I read a post on Facebook from my friend Liz Walker. She was sharing a website http://www.art-adventures.com/tip06.html telling how to make a crystallized texture with acrylic paint on smooth paper in freezing cold weather. This was perfect for me--no skill involved--just a quick creation to work on later.

So here is my route to the studio. Mike found bear footprints out by the barn earlier this morning.

 

I followed the directions which included mixing fluid acrylics in water to pour over the wet paper.

 

I was working outside of the barn's shelter as I wet the paper and poured color over the paper. As I worked, snowflakes drifted onto the paper, and I wondered if that would effect my final product. As I finished the pours and moving of the paint around by tilting the papers, I laid the papers out on the barn floor to freeze.

 

Before leaving the studio area, I could already see some crystals forming, although they are very small.

 

 

Now I have faith that after we have our feasting and celebrating our older daughter's birthday (which is tomorrow), I will have the inspiration to go paint. Probably only other artists understand the ups and downs of the process of putting something of yourself on a piece of paper in hopes it will be "art."

And as for the disappointing painting--I won't show the whole, but here are a few small bits.

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!