Freedom

Blue-Eyed Boy. Oil on canvas, 16x20, $150.

I traveled to Montgomery, N.Y. (my first trip as a nonresident) and taught a pet-painting workshop on Saturday. It was fun and invigorating - and my students made amazing, wonderful paintings.

Of the seven in the group, three had never painted, three were new painters and one was returning to painting after a two-decade hiatus. They all made paintings that stirred my imagination and excited my soul.

They are all animal lovers, and that helps - there's very little wondering about the curve of the head or the set of the ear - they know what that head feels like under their fingers. They know where that ear is, and how it moves, too.

But they said they felt liberated - free to make blue dogs and yellow cats, and to use pink and purple instead of light brown and dark brown. This, after all, is part of what makes painting so wonderful - if you wish the sky were orange, well, it can be.

It's easy to forget this, in life and in painting. But it's also easy to remember it again.

I made this painting as a demonstration piece. It's from a card my friend Heather sent me from Maine. The dog looks completely nuts - and like he knows all about fun.

Thanks for reading!