It’s time to start painting again.

I'm not only a photographer, ya know.

The past 4 years have been rough. With medical emergencies, moving to a different state, and political stress, I’ve let my painting fall to the wayside. Its time to get back in the saddle.

After Biden won the election. I felt like I could finally breathe again. Then in September of 2021, my husband almost died from Ventricular Tachycardia. Thank God he had a defibrillator implant that kept him alive through that attack. The implant fired 34 times before the ER doctors could get his heart rate under control. As Brent describes it, it was like being kicked in the chest by a horse 34 times. He received a new pacemaker/defibrillator which keeps his heart rate steady now without the pain of the shocks but the shock will be there if he ever needs it again.

During that time, we were living 3.5 hours away from our daughter and her family, and we decided we should be closer for both emotional and physical support. Moving entailed serious downsizing of our possessions and it took me 5 months of donating or selling stuff, packing up, and moving. Brent was in no shape to help. We finally got settled into a much smaller home. A year later, Brent started having Atrial Fibrillation. Medication was good at controlling the A-fib…until it wasn’t. A cardioversion last December, which involved shocking the heart back into a normal rhythm, lasted for 5 months. A second cardioversion in October, which was delayed for 5 more months due to a different medical problem, is keeping his rhythm normal for now.

On top of all of that, this nightmare of an election season added so much more stress. Like so many of you, I was sure this year would be the last of him. It’s not going to be easy to shift out of this panic mode I’ve been in for so long now that it’s become a way of life, but I’m going to give it my best effort. My mental health demands it. Hopefully, the medical emergencies will settle down and I can begin to transition back into that head space where external factors cease to exist when I’m painting.

My new studio space

I no longer have a large separate art studio. I’m now squeezed into the small sunroom off our kitchen. While the space has absolutely incredible natural light and is all set up, I haven’t spent much time in there since we moved in. I’ve not made the studio space ‘my own’ yet. It’s time to change that!

I have several paintings in progress that I have to unpack and finish, but I need to start small and get my painting skills back on track first. In the meantime, I thought you might like to see my last completed painting from 2021 which was painted from my own photographic reference. (Canvas prints will be available soon, see below.)

Feeding Frenzy — Great Blue Heron, 24x12” acrylic on canvas

Don’t worry, I’ll still be making time for my photography and posting daily images. But rather than doom scrolling the rest of the time, I’m going to be painting again very soon. Wish me luck!

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The images I post are copyright protected and most are available on my website here so please drop by for a visit. I’m in the process of making canvas and metal prints available for my wildlife art but you can view some of my original paintings under the Wildlife Art tab. If you are interested in a 24x12” canvas print of ‘Feeding Frenzy,’ please message me here or through my website’s Contact Form.

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