Turning Over...

A New Leaf. Oil on stretched canvas, 11x14, $50

I have this idea of painting autumn leaves - one at a time, big and bright, with all the colors of fall in them - and this painting is a start, but it's not what I see in my mind's eye.

And that's OK. It's not a failed painting - and I am always happy when my grasp outruns my reach. It means that I am onto something new, that a new idea, a new vision has woken itself up in me. This is how I make progress, by reaching for the edge of this thing that I can really barely see, let alone grab, let alone hang onto.

My days are taking a different shape, with the inclusion of the dog park, and I think that this is helping me move to a new place with my painting. While I do rue the amount of time that the dog park takes - more than an hour, if JoJo and Smokey are to get any real running done - I must say that the delight of watching 10 or 20 dogs race around, sort things out, play and snarl and bark and run and smash into each other, and wrestle, and chase and greet and sniff and dig and run - this has added an energy and a fluency to my days that they didn't have before the dog park - or the DP, as Peter and I have learned to call it - because JoJo is so smart that she got "dog park" on the very first day. All you have to do is mention the phrase and she starts barking and leaping and jumping and... did I mention barking?

And so autumn brings its inevitable change to this quiet little life, and I welcome it - and whatever else the future holds.