The painting doldrums - and how I regained the joy

I'm putting all of these paintings in the same post, because I wanted to show you all what I did when I lost the joy of painting. My mojo had disappeared somewhat over the summer. In my whole month off, I only painted three paintings - I could easily do that in a week before.
When I'd finished them, I did the  red flower, one painting for a friend, but after that, although the technique was there, the sheer joy I had in painting was lost. I was due to go to art class and wasn't at all inspired.

 I had a friend visit and asked why I didn't paint something randomly, to see what came out. My answer was that if I paint randomly, I get mud and a mess.
 But after she'd gone, I tried it, just wet the paper and doodled with paint. Slung paint at it and when it was done, decided it needed fish, don't ask me why - even I'm not always sure how my brain works! So I painted blue water around some fish shapes. Painting was suddenly fun again - even though it's not a masterpiece, I enjoyed it and it gave me the oomph to pick up my brushes, so I'm grateful to my friend and the painting!

When Fishes Flew

once this was done, I had some permanent rose left in the palette - and some of the gold paint in Fishes reminded me of Chinese letters, so I painted this:

Waiting to Shine 

very simple, one large sable brush, a few swishes and she's done. Sometimes simple is what you need!

Then Mollie Jones, bless her, of Painting Friends, had done a demo of crystal and berries - so I tackled that - and this is the result.
Thanks Mollie, for your time and generosity!

Waiting for Mollie

I'm really not expecting you to coo over the paintings (except maybe the crystal one) but I wanted to show you one way out of the painting doldrums, should you ever find yourself in them.
Until next time.... 

Aliens Must Die!

Bit of an odd title for a watercolour post isn't it?

But, as my title says, its a journey with watercolour and my dog :)

This post is about Missy and our great joy over her annual check.

To celebrate the good news, we bought a new toy for Missy - an Alien!
She's a jack - you never thought the Alien would live, did you?

Such joy on her face when she de-stuffs him!

Missy's weekend

Glorious weather we had this weekend, so we made the most of it and were outside a great deal of the time.


Our lovely neighbours had lots of children over for a birthday party - and Missy adores children, so whilst we were in the front garden, she was having a fuss from each and every one. She loved it :)

Later on we were playing with the football in the back garden, which she loves equally as much.


We also took a trip over to see Beryl, which meant a whole new garden to explore and mark - which Missy did with great efficiency!

To this little girl, everything is enjoyable. The joy she has in life is wonderful to see - and you can't help but smile with her.