painting party

One neighbor has a birthday, another neighbor throws the little party, a third neighbor makes my favorite recipe which has become hers as well, and I am asked to put together a painting lesson of sorts. Done! 

To tell the whole story, I was a little nervous about teaching my neighbors, or anyone for that matter, the basics of painting.. When I paint, the mood is set with music of my choice, and the world is centered for those moments around the paint on my brush, and touching it delicately to the paper, letting it meld with the other colors around it. It's tranquility in its most productive form. 

What I forgot to realize about teaching friends/neighbors is that .. they're not children! They were able to focus and sit down and enjoy the relaxation while we talked softly and laughed at each other. It was far more enjoyable than I thought it ever could be. Taking a name from the recipe link above, we called ourselves "the coconut club" and we want to paint together weekly now. We probably won't be that lucky, but doing it many more times will be more than wonderful. 

And while on the subject of paintings.. last night I got the sweetest, most exciting package in the mail from a dear friend who I'm lucky enough to call family. A while back, she posted a painting she did when she was just, she said, messing around with her son's water colors! What she painted, I fell in love with. It reminds me of Julia Childs' love for food and silly phrases for some reason. The blending technique is beautiful and she really did a phenomenal job. I didn't know how to print it nicely or recreate it with her permission.. so I was a procrastinating, but I had a spot on my wall for whatever copy of it I could draft. What I was not expecting was to receive the original in a perfect white frame in the mail. The original! I love it so much. Thank you, Rachel!