The Calm Before the Storm

In spite of this winter dragging on and on and on with things like record setting snow or yesterday’s morning temperature of 9 degrees (windchill of minus 7), I am not talking about that type of storm.  Later this afternoon, the house will be full with 9 people to play cards and have dinner.  While I am looking forward to this and it should be a blast, I feel rusty with hosting social gatherings.  My spouse has a healthy accumulation of vacation at work, so he took some time off this week and really shouldered the burden of getting ready with doing a ton of errands and cleaning.  

There’s still a list of things to get done today, but it feels manageable.  

When I got up this morning, the house was quiet.  I brewed some tea, sat in a chair with two house cats close by, and looked at pictures on the IPad.  For painting, I want to work on landscapes or outdoor scenes and I want to work on 5” by 7” pieces, so I can give them to Art 4 Shelter if they turn out.  

What I’m finding is that when I am looking in my pictures, I am drawn to scenes that have too much detail.  I like detail.  I like complexity.  I like lots of fussy little bits. That leads to poor choices for what I want to currently explore, especially when working small. 

As a result, I spent time this morning slowing down to look at some of my photos in a new way to find both interest and less details. This meant cropping like crazy. 

I am not sure I was completely successful, but I have several pictures that I want to explore.  It was a good exercise and it was a good way to start out on a busy day.  It also has me thinking about being more aware of those simple scenes and settings around me at any time, so I can generate some new photos to explore. 

Also, here is a painting from earlier this week. I think this was a reasonable photo choice, but I don’t want to go with anything more complicated than this and less complex would probably be better.