Coming home

The southern Montana landscape at dusk.

I've been gone.  Since the news of a family members' death, I have been gone both physically and mentally.  My husband, kids and I drove 2,800 miles last week for both sides of the family, for both sad and joyous reasons.  The funeral in California, and a reunion in Montana.  A blessing to be with them all.   Since my return to the studio, I now want to clear out all the stuff around me.  I want to quit waiting for "this" or "that" to happen.  Like getting the cobwebs removed in my surroundings and life.  I don't want to wait anymore. Observation:  Each one of us manages death differently from the next. 

During our long drive through the West, I took several snapshots of the local scenery, both landscape and city scenes.  I brought my plein air supplies only to be left in the car.  That's ok, because I've got my trusty camera always on hand.  Above is one of many interesting light and cloud formations I saw as we were heading north in Montana.  There seems to be a repetition of shapes in both the clouds and the hills.  When I was young, I thought that our giant God walked in the clouds.  I reasoned how he was to stand on the tops of the clouds without falling through.

I gave my first lesson with my new student.  She is a joyous person and so excited to learn.  We only spent one hour, but it was fun.  There is much to share with her and am lucky to have this outlet.  The secret is, I will be learning more from her than she from me!  But in different ways.  She will learn how to paint with pastels, and I will learn how to walk the talk.  I'm back home and life is good.