Summer's End
We'll be starting school here in a week. My how the summer has whizzed by! This week will be a blur of fall house cleaning and homeschool prep. It definitely would be easier to pack the kids' backpacks and send them off to school, and maybe I'd have more time to paint, but we believe in home education too much to abandon it now. I think my favourite aspect of homeschooling is that my children spend 95% of their time in an environment where they are loved and accepted just as they are. They get to be themselves without trying to conform to their peers. We recognize that home education is not perfect, or for everyone, and I like to say that I can be an advocate for home education while reserving the right to change direction if a different education plan serves my children better down the road. Plus, this year I'm taking third grade for the fourth time. I am becoming thoroughly educated.
Summer projects are wrapping up. My husband had a week off work and spent his days off building an outside entrance and deck for my art studio. It's beautiful! 400 square feet of view, and I can just imagine sitting out and painting here next summer. Or hosting a summer party on the deck; stringing up some lanterns and enjoying music and laughs with friends. The bathroom inside the studio is nearly finished, and once that's done, I'm moving in. We do still need a heating system installed, but I can live without it for a few more weeks.
We've spent lots of time outdoors this summer, with one of the driest, hottest summers I can remember in the Peace River region, it's been wonderful for hiking and picnicking, if not for gardening or forest fires. All of this time outdoors enjoying nature's beauty will translate into lots of paintings celebrating this splendor this winter.
I've been working out how best to paint a sunlit, tree-arched path in the woods. Those places always seem so magical!
Like always, I'll paint several versions of this until I can paint it confidently. These studies are my favourite way of working out a painting.