Two paintings. One weekend. When I realize I did them, sometimes, I laugh at myself. Fancy yourself an artist then, Djinn, m'dear?
Don't know that I do, truth be told. Don't know that it matters, truth be told there too.
What little I know about painting I learned as a child. For 2 dollars extra a week, a tidy sum even in 1961 or so, available were lessons of one sort or another, piano, and painting at my grammar school. I took both. I learned the basics before I went onto other elementary school, high school, college endeavors. I kept my original piano. The only thing I moved cross country in 1981; the only thing I owned, after a fashion. It had been bought for me by my parents for $800.00 in 1962.
Of late, I have been thinking greatly about my life as a retiree, although it is still a few savings years off, and nothing retiring there will be about this retiree. All the things I never committed to because none of them likely meant self-support, these are the things I desire to do. And so, from time to time, in an effort at pre-retirement self-discipline, but also, pre-retirement, enjoyment, I am painting again. The rigors of the piano have not yet quite attracted me. Maybe because I realize it is easier to avert the eyes, than to cover the ears and I am a charitable artist. I have been finding my style, which seems to be some motley combination of impressionism cum bright color. Probably the source of my impressionism is laziness. I don't have the patience to make anything look like the real thing. Let's just call it primitive.
I fear actually asking anyone who has also seen my, shall we call them, works, what he or she thinks. For while I say that it doesn't matter if I am any good, I am still fearful of criticism and a sucker for praise. But onward I say, for now. I will paint. I will pretend that I have some spark of talent. It gives me pleasure. And for a momentary act of courage, I think, it is courage, here is one of the two--I am calling it "Backyard on Spaulding Avenue." Not as bright as the real thing, and my effort at copying anduploading, cut off much of the bottom, but you get the idea. I hope this art is in the eye of some beholder! I think I shall make my little pictures a personal trademark on this blog, much like a friend of mine has made his dinner the personal trademark on his (Len Speaks). Alas, though, it won't be everyday, my capacity to paint is not as prodigious as my capacity to eat.
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