Happy Anniversary Again

Greetings Dear Reader –

In a desperate attempt to find a nugget of inspiration for this post I spent some time scrolling back into my own archives.  Post after post, year after year until the list ran out. The date was May 6^th, 2008.

Wha-?

Four years?? Four years ago next week!! How did that happen? 

One post at a time my dear. One post at a time.

More importantly, why?

February, 2007. I had stepped away from an 8-to-5 job that I often enjoyed, but also left me frustrated and empty.  You may know that feeling, that gnawing, low hum in the back of your heart.  It couldn't be ignored any longer. With Handsome Husband’s complete support I created a small studio space in our home and whispered, “I’m ready.  I want – I need – to give this painting thing a shot. ”

I had no reason for blogging other than the fact that Alyson Stanfield, art business consultant, suggested that it was an important component of an artist’s public presence (pg. 104 of her excellent book “I’d Rather Be InThe Studio”). Since I actually paid her for that advice (one of the smartest things I’ve ever done, by the way) it occurred to me to actually follow it, so I set up my password, my template and my color scheme and started thumping away at the keyboard.  I started it because she said so.

But what has kept me coming back week after week for all these years?

Simply put:  you, Dear Reader; Handsome Husband; and me.

Many of you have shared my exploits since the beginning. You know how I operate, what gets me going and keeps me at my easel day after day. You’ve allowed me to pull back the gauzy veil that hides the inner workings of the artist’s sanctum sanctorum and laughed (or rolled your eyes) with me. Sorry if I popped your illusion of the artist’s groovy life. (Who knew that an artist painting a charming landscape in a field nearby may have just crawled out of a hole they stepped into that swallowed them to their elbows?   Did Monet ever do that?) 

A few of you have been kind enough to comment, and let me know that somehow we found common ground; maybe not in exactly the same way, but in spirit or in ideal, or maybe in the way I turned a phrase.  Thank you for that.

Handsome Husband has kept track of me as well. His patience and support means the world to me.  I often write for him as a way of sharing what has gone on in my heart and mind while wrestling with the profound as well as inane elements of this business.

And I keep at this weekly blog for me. Like learning states and capitols in 3^rd grade, quite simply this is good for me.  Working alone deep in the right side of my brain it becomes entirely too easy to let logic, linear thought and formal sentence structure slide deeper into one more pile of Stuff I Used to Know. 

It’s been a journey of discovery and you’ve been kind enough to come along for the ride.

How to celebrate this momentous occasion?  Prizes!  Gifts for all!  Well, maybe not all. How about just  one of you.  But who? (To whom? Another addition to Stuff I Used to Know.)

Leave a comment before 4 pm on Sunday, May 6^th.    I’ll put your name into Handsome Husband’s Magic Hat.  With his help – as usual – a name will be drawn, and a winner declared.  To that dear commenter (is that a real word? Another thing I for the pile…), I will give this painting:

©2012 Patricia Scarborough  Flowering Crab 6 x 8 Oil on Panelli Telati canvas covered board

No strings attached.  Give, like a sweet present. Just because.

HH and I were enjoying our usual walk by the Fillmore County Fairgrounds. Several years ago a grove of flowering fruit trees was planted to help tame that corner of town. When the late afternoon sun recently swept across this little orchard…gorgeousness.  It’s a distinct possibility that this painting will be the first of a series of paintings of this lovely grove of trees. 

I have learned abundance in the last four years.  I would love to share that abundance with you.

Help me celebrate my blogging achievement. You don’t have to say anything grand, a sweet ‘hey’ will do. 

Thank you for coming along all these years. Let’s celebrate, shall we?