It seems every year has two New Years.
Of course there is January 1st, the actual New Year of the Gregorian calendar.
But September often also feels like the "New Year."
The kids go back to school.
The casual days of summer are winding down.
Many clubs and churches and sports teams and groups begin a new season.
For many years, September brought to me a pull and a longing to 'go back to school.' Not for anything in particular. Not a yearning for high school math and PE and lockers with combination locks that haunt my nightmares even on occasion still, 40 some years later.
I just wanna learn stuff that I want to learn.
I do admit that the last few years that pull has been a little less intense. I have been busy. Busy forging a new life. A new husband. A new house. And new adventures. Surely the waning pull for schooling has nothing to do with an aging brain.
Last September that old feeling surfaced again, and I signed up for a watercolour painting class at Studio 2880. I loved it! Much of it was stuff I knew, but I did learn some things, but mostly I loved just being scheduled every week to have to do something that I enjoyed, but didn't necessarily make time to do (outside of needing to be intentional about painting 110 Christmas cards each year.) Happy New Year.
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| 8x10 Watercolour Painted at Studio 2880 |
Then January came. The real New Year.
New year, new starts.
I began signing up for classes that enticed me.
And here it is the last day of January and I find myself registered and participating in 11 different classes, groups and clubs. All of them in the creative arts in some way or another.
Most of them online.
That's the problem with the online world and algorithms. All you have to do is show interest in ONE thing. And BAM! Everything that comes across your feed is more enticing than the last. And you gotta try them all.
So my clean, simple watercolour art studio that my new husband and new house have granted me, has suddenly become filled with acrylic paints, fabrics, papers, glues, canvases, scissors, inks a plethora of other things.
And my Amazon delivery guys are on a first name basis.
And I rarely emerge from my studio, except to go to the pool three or four days a week. Not so much to get a bit of bodily exercise, but to get me out of the house so I can stop by Michaels for more supplies on the way home.
And tomorrow is February.
And February means Opus Art Supplies daily practice month.
Opus Daily Practice is an event I have participated in for the past eight years.
Each day they give a prompt word and the participants create a piece of art somehow remotely connected to the word.
For eight years, I have taken that prompt word and painted a watercolour work of art. Ok, they haven't all been 'works of art'. Many have been experiments. But they are watercolours.
Eight years times 28 days, and a couple of Leap Year's thrown in there. That's a LOT of paintings. In recent years I have made most of the paintings greeting card size so I could get rid of them - 8x28 equals many. (Sorry, I don't math or PE anymore).
But tomorrow is February...
Watch for the Opus Daily Prompts to bring out more than watercolour paintings in me this year.
Also, I'm trying to keep up with all kinds of classes and mediums and content. So you might wonder how I connected the prompt with the image you see.
There's a very real possibility there isn't much connection at all between the daily word and the art. But I will post some form of art each day in February. You can use your imagination to make a connection...
...or just shake your head.
