Let's raise a glass!

This 2007 painting, titled Very Special, was an experiment in working with dark tones. Very Special indeed since it stars the bottle of Courvoisier (contents long since emptied!) we'd brought home from France in 1995 -- possibly our last ever, since this delectable cognac is now hitting $90 a pop in BC liquor stores.

But it seemed a good choice to help me savour some seasonal memories. So many notable events have happened for me in the August-September period; it's really beyond statistical chance. Every job change I've ever made, geographic relocations, family milestones,...and how about this August's 40th anniversary for John and me?!

Reflecting on this season, as I do every year, I realized it's a big anniversary for my art work -- ten years since the August vacation when I decided to hunker down and do art consistently, productively, regardless...regardless of not having gone to art school, regardless of working full-time, regardless of this, regardless of that. Oh, I'd been drawing steadily for more than 25 years, taking courses when I could, starting to paint from the time we moved to Vancouver -- painting and repainting, but never talking about it much, never showing people what I did.

In August 2000, that changed. I would produce. I would talk about it. I would exhibit --digitally, at least. I gathered all my resources, books, sketchbooks, notes, and decided to set annual goals -- and meet them. I chose as my log book my newest sketchbook from my May birthday and inscribed a frontispiece with the counsel that has meant so much to me from the time I first read it in Balzac's novel Cousine Bette.

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In the novel it's a cautionary note, reflecting unfortunately on Stanislas, the young artist who has so many gifts and possibilities -- but whiles away his attentions and comes to nothing.

In that first year of my new program, I focused on drawing intensively, based on an exercise I'd read about: "Draw on a roll of paper. Draw every day for a year. Do not unroll your work until the end of the year." With the support of my priceless home team, the roll was never left behind as we travelled back and forth on our weekends, and in 365 days, I missed drawing only on three. At the end of the year -- on our Aug-Sept 2001 vacation at the cabin -- John took my picture at the roll's unfurling.

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From then on, I set an annual goal for painting, sometimes based on volume, sometimes on a particular area of study. In my fourth year, I gathered my paintings and had a personal consultation at Emily Carr -- a big milestone in itself, which yielded some new insights. Fast-forward to the 2009-2010 goal to complete the Astrological Plants series, a goal I'll achieve on schedule, finishing the final one in September. Looking in my log book this morning, I discovered something kind of neat: When I finish Astro-plants, I'll have completed 64 logged paintings since my resolution of ten years ago. I think I'd better hunker down, whip out an additional painting this September, and make that a total of 65 -- for my 65th year.

Now there's cause for celebration! Cheers. Good Health. Happy Days.