New Eyes

          I have new eyes!

          And I don’t just mean because my cataracts are gone, either.

          I started daily painting. I don’t paint in my book every day, the idea is to paint as often as you can.

          The first thing I painted was just color swishes on a page. I wasn’t trying to paint anything, I was just getting paint off my brush or checking to see how pigmented my watercolors were.

          Then I tried to paint something. I used AI (artificial intelligence) to create some loose flowers and I painted that.

          Then I asked AI for a bubble in a puddle and I painted that. I’m not going for masterpieces here, and clearly, they are not, but I’m learning how my paint flows and reacts with other colors.

          Then I saw one of my photos and I thought, why am I using AI when I can paint from my own photos?

          Again, not a masterpiece, but rather, practice.

          You may notice in a couple of these photos that I have a new sketchpad. Yep. I do. Someone who loves me, and Miss Rosie, I won’t tell them it was you, but someone who loves me bought me a sketchpad. I am so blessed to have such good neighbors and friends as the Kipps are.

          It's a lightweight paper, not meant for watercolors, but I decided to use watercolors anyway. It buckled a lot but nothing bled through. Once it dried, most of the buckling went away. Again, I wasn’t painting anything in particular, I was just unloading my brush and learning.

          “What are you painting that you had to unload your brush?” you ask.

          Besides being blessed with good friends and neighbors, I’m also incredibly blessed when it comes to family.

          Patti, my oldest and much-adored sister shared my watercolor painting of the dogs with her friend Susan. Susan asked me to paint her cat, Charli.

          I was flattered and my stomach fluttered. I’m more confident when I paint things I know I can paint, like the clipart and lettering on my porch signs. Painting a portrait of any kind is way out of my wheelhouse. I was considering it and hadn’t given Susan an answer before she sent me some photos of Charli.

          I tapped the image on my phone to make it larger, then held it out to Mike. “Think I can paint that?”

          “Let me see,” he said and reached for my phone. He examined it and said, “Yeah.”

          He gave me back my phone and other photos came in from Susan. I held another one up to Mike. “How about that one?”

          Mike took the phone. “I like that one better.”

          I took my time and considered the photo. He was right, it was better. And it’s a black and white cat, how hard can that be?

          “I’ll give it a try,” I told Susan. “And I’ll make you a deal. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy it.”

          “Deal,” she said.

          I set to work on it right away the next day. I do have three commissions but the first one up said “whenever” for a time frame so I knew I could squeeze Charli in and the other two aren’t due until late summer.

          I printed the picture of Charli and right away realized she wasn’t just black and white. “I see some reddish-brown in her coat,” I told Susan. “Am I correct?”

          “Yes! You have a good eye! Kind of overtones and more in the summer,” she replied.

          After working on it for a day, I was ready to scrap it. But that seems to be a theme in my paintings lately. The second day I started building my colors and at the end of the session I was much happier. So happy, in fact, that I sent a picture of it to Susan and asked for feedback.

          “Can you take out the picture frame (in the background) and the whiskers are missing.”

          I blurred the frame out as much as I could and at the end of my third day, I put the whiskers on Charli and sent her a picture for a final tweaking.

          Guess what? She loves it the way it is. No tweaking required. In fact, she’s asked me to do two dog portraits for her.

          Speaking of painting...

          Mike wanted an address marker for the end of our driveway. He wanted our house number and a reflector in a place where people who are coming to see us can see it. The problem is mostly UPS or FedEx drivers. They find the mailbox at the back drive and they can’t come up the back drive. No one can — at least not in a vehicle. They’ve left stuff on the rocks or put it in the mailbox.

          I made the pattern and transferred it to a board Mike sanded and painted white. Tiger helped.

          Mike painted it and put it out. Looks good!

          We’ve had some beautiful weather, very un-February-like. It was sunny and in the 50s several days in a row. That allowed me to get out and clean the poo from the dog run and play ball with Raini. You may (or may not) notice she’s got a different ball. Her hard, knobby ball is on the roof and I’m gonna leave it there. This is an orange, hollow rubber ball that used to have a string through it. She took it off the string. It’s a lot better to play with in the house because it’s lighter and doesn’t knock stuff over when she bops it.

Bondi found a spot to sun herself while I played with Raini.

          Blackie found a spot on the roof of the patio he likes.

          Since I’m speaking of Raini, let me tell you two more things.

          Raini is a lot like the rest of us. She likes to get mail. Sometimes I’ll give her a small corrugated cardboard box and let her tear that up. Sometimes I stuff a bunch of junk mail into an envelope and give that to her. Most times she’ll tear it to little pieces but sometimes she’s just not in the mood and will only tear it up a little bit.

          As Heelers go, Raini is not destructive. She doesn’t tear up couch cushions, or TV remotes, or her bed, or any of the myriad of things people on the Heeler page post that their Heelers tear up.

          But there is one thing she has torn up that she shouldn’t’ve.

          “What’s that, Peg?” I know you wanna know.

          She tore the tire off the lawnmower.

          I thought I had her broken of the habit of going after the lawnmower tire, but a while ago Mike told me she was at it again.

          Here’s the thing. She runs faster than I can and gets to the tire before I can get out there to stop her. If I can’t catch her in the act, I can’t swat her little rump.

          When we were playing ball the other day, it got stuck on the roof. I went back to get the ladder and that’s when I saw what she’d done. She went after the tire and my hands being full, I tried to swat her with my foot. I ended up barking my shin on the ladder leg instead of connecting with her rump. Ow. It’s not the end of the world. I bet they sell new lawnmower tires every day.

          We went shopping this week and forgot one thing. Here’s the only picture worth showing. I took multiple shots of it but I thought the guide rail lent it a little perspective.

          That evening, during our TV-watching time, Mike said, “Let’s go out for breakfast tomorrow. I’ve got a hankerin’ for Eggs Benedict and we can stop back at Walmart.”

          I’m never gonna say no to going out for breakfast, even if I’ve just eaten breakfast! 

          We went early and I took more road pictures this trip. Maybe it was the time of day that inspired me.

          The deer were out.

          Crossing the Susquehanna.

          In this view, I’ve changed the color. It’s kinda pretty, don’cha think? And I bet I could use either one for a daily painting.

          Oh my gosh! The clouds were fabulous! I couldn’t stop taking pictures of it and took more than fifty.

Something other than clouds.

We went to Perkins. “Let me take your picture,” I said, pulling out my camera. Guess what he said.

          I took a picture of my coffee.

          “I thought you took your coffee black,” you say.

          I do. When I’m at home. When I’m out, it’s often too strong so I put cream in it.

          I lined up a bunch of stuff and took a picture. Sometimes, things like this can make interesting paintings. This isn't it, though.

“Give me the camera,” Mike said and reached across the table. 

          I knew what was coming and even though I too hate having my picture taken, I let him. Fair's fair.

          Then our food came and I took a picture of Mike’s Eggs Benedict.

          A couple of more pictures for you.

          “I got you something,” Mike said.

          Uh-oh. Here we go again! “I don’t need another dryer lint cleaner or sink stopper. So you can just keep it!” I was smiling the whole time I said it, so he knew I was half joking.

          “No. You’re gonna like this.”

          I could’ve ruined his surprise by checking online to see what he bought, but I didn’t. I played along.

          It came Saturday.

          I sat patiently at the table while he opened the other mail first.

          “You’re going to think this is for me, but it’s more for you,” Mike said.

          “Oh! Now I know who you really got it for!”

          Then I saw the battery warning on the box. That was a good sign — or so I thought.

          “The chuck is bad in mine, so I got you a new one and I’ll take your old one,” Mike explained.

           I do like tools.

          Does he love me, or what?!

          Let’s call this one done!

          Done!