Summer! This year I really doubted it would come, but it's been honest-to-goodness hot, dry summertime since the last week of July. Even as June teased us with a few clear days, I started to get into summer camp mode. At this time of year, I'm more likely to spend my studio time puttering than producing.
Still, it's all in a good cause, and the studio or summer camp that doesn't allow for a lot of puttering can't be very inspirational. Furthermore, I haven't been completely non-productive. For months, I'd had a plan for some summer action, as soon as the black-eyed Susans bloomed. Our first summer here, a wonderful friend gave us a housewarming gift of two lovely dark-brown pottery mugs and the best-ever coffee to fill them. She can't say I didn't warn her at the time...that some day one of these mugs would find itself paired in a painting with black-eyed Susans.
In my puttering clean-up, I found some Gently Used artist's paper that I've cut to different sizes, planning to paint over my previous efforts with a "splash" -- that's what I've usually called an impulsive and often experimental painting that's pulled off with not much planning and lots of speed. This little one, though, I'll consider a sunspot!
It was fun to do, fun to think of my friend and all her big doings this summer, fun to try to think of a title -- "Summer's Best Blend" ? -- as I put the mug back in the kitchen where it belongs and the fading black-eyed Susan into the compost where at least it will have more head room than my recycled paper allowed.
