More Work

Toni and I were supposed to play the recorder today but she backed out, just as she did Saturday. I filled both days with working around the house and doing another Epping Road painting. I really like the one I did today, and yesterday's too, actually. I have actually trashed two of these paintings along the way, and one of them was another version of this one. I'm glad I decided to try it again. It's intriguing how the people clearing the fields pile the rocks on top of one another sometimes. The resulting scultptures look like religious icons of some lost civilization.

Thelma has asked me to trade the first Fall painting of the series with her for a painting she owns that I have always loved. I had thought I would keep the series in tact, but I can not refuse this particular offer. It flatters me that Thelma wants it, for one thing, when she is in the process of getting rid of so many things. It is a compliment that she wants to acquire something of mine. Also, I would do just about anything Thelma asked of me, no matter what it was. I think she knows that and it is enormously to her credit that she still offered me an exchange that is far more than compensatory. She is giving me a painting that I have loved since I first saw it so many years ago and never dreamed I would ever own. Plus she is returning to me two paintings that she once bought from me that I did at workshops that we attended together. Judy Rogers' painting has some kind of allure I can't really explain, but I am always struck by it anew whenever I visit Thelma. It will be like having a piece of all those visits here with me. Though it makes me sad to see Thelma changing things that have been so consistent in my life as well as hers, she is certainly an inspiration when it comes to accepting change and moving forward. There is nobody like her.

Also today I went back and worked a little bit on one of the paintings I did last week that I wasn't quite happy with. That's a first, too. I like it better now. The rest of them seem okay as they are, but that one bothered me because of the color green I used. I don't want to fuss with them once they are done. I want the sponaneity to be there. Amazingly, I am still enjoying every one as if it were the first.