Grief affects each person differently....

My way of dealing with the loss of a loved one is to paint.  I began working on two paintings Friday after learning that my elder sister had died.  I am at an uncomfortable point in the grieving and painting processes.  As for the former, I have been sick with flu and subsequent cold for a week, feel exhausted, want to clean my house and am too tired to do so, want to enjoy my daughter who has come from Nevada to be with me and I can't stay awake long enough to do so. 


As for the latter, I awoke Friday evening with two paintings pressing themselves into my consciousness.  I got out of bed and for over three hours began laying them in.  I slept for a few more hours, got up and worked on both pieces more.  Since then, all I've done is write about them and sleep some more.


Add to all this, I am so frustrated with myself because I still have not learned how to download videos from my camera.  For whatever reason, before dawn on Saturday morning, I decided to make videos of the progress I was making on each piece as I painted.  Well, yesterday, I showed you the photos of that progress on the 10 x 20" horizontal I have decided to entitle "In the Valley...." 


This is the start I made of the 24 x 12" vertical, "Blue Sky Day."   I've discovered that I only made this one still shot; the rest is on video.  [scream]   I had blocked in the main areas in underpainting and then had gone back in with the beginnings of color:

"Blue Sky Day" is the vertical 12" x 24" version.

In the 1960's when I was working part-time at a detective agency [honestly], I read the book Archy and Mehitabel, written by Don Marquis some time in the 20's.  Quoting from the DonMarquis.com website:


Archy is a cockroach with the soul of a poet, and Mehitabel is an alley cat with a celebrated past — she claims she was Cleopatra in a previous life. Together, cockroach and cat are the foundation of one of the most engaging collections of light poetry to come out of the twentieth century.


I loved Marquis's humor, especially this phrase, which applies to me right now:  "Whatthehell, whatthehell, toujours gaie, toujours gaie!"  On that note, I'll call it quits for today.  Au revoir, mes amis!