Satisfaction

I have spent the last months preparing for the Saskatchewan River Art Tour in the Nipawin area. Michael Brownlee of Mabel Hill Farm Kitchen and Marketplace has embraced my art work in his lovely venue year-round but this weekend I have the opportunity to show more of my work there and visit with those who pop in to see what I have accomplished.

I have finished everything (24 paintings and 80 greeting cards) and all that I need to do is pack it up into the vehicle and make my way there Thursday. My husband took a load of paintings and easels the other day. I am looking forward to setting it all up and seeing it displayed together. I have everything from greeting cards to large paintings, florals to canola fields to beachscapes.

The preparation has required an intense creativity that I haven’t achieved for some time. With the loss of my mom, I wondered if it would ever come back to me. Something changed when she died. It was really hard to find the joy in things, even painting.

Here I am, six months after her death, putting together an art show. I can’t say that it has been easy. I had to push myself many days to keep going. I did it, though, and I like what I have to display. I am not worried about sales, either. I never got into painting for money. I got into it because I needed to create. If someone thinks something I have made is worth buying, then I am honoured.

The show days will be extremely hot but I hope that people come out anyway. I am open in the evenings so it will be a bit cooler, I hope.

And after? Well, I have a stack of books I badly want to read as well as some other personal goals. My focus will change for a bit. I have been missing my granddaughters, too. Maybe we will even paint together, who knows?