Spring in St. Paul; new workshop; and happy bulldozing.

Lilacs at the studio window, 5/24/11

Went out walking this morning, and despite the clouds it's gorgeous here, and all of Highland Park smells like lilacs.

Home now, I'm putting together the outline for a fun, one-day workshop at Bloomington Art Center, on painting portraits of animals from photos.  Scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 24th. I'll link more information when it is available.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking about how often we get stuck because we let stupid obstacles stop us. The little still life setup in this photo is an example: I haven't been painting still life at home because I kept thinking I had no place to set one up. This idea, when examined, was silly. Of course I had a place. I was just using it for clutter-storage, crowding it with things that I could simply move.

What a powerful thing -- to just move stuff where it needs to be instead of letting it make you take detours. Now I feel like a happy little bulldozer, on the prowl for other "obstacles" I can shove out of my way.