Life Interferes

Wow...I am so sorry, that so very much time has passed. I cannot even come up with too many compelling reasons, tho' there are a few. My apologies to: The one and only...me, Mark Mize, Lewistaft4317, and johnsmigh94065293...your comments were appreciated, and I am sorry for any let down involved in my lack of answers. I hope the following will help you understand what I have been just a bit busy with.

My mother took a serious fall down the attic stairs, in 2004, fracturing her back, her breastbone, lacerating the back of her head, and in general banging herself up pretty badly. This might not have been quite so serious, if she had not been 84 years old, and then had to lie there for somewhere around an hour before my dad came in from mowing the yard and found her. Since then, she has also been thru' surgery for a bowel obstruction, and has been diagnosed with cancer for the third time, this time in her liver, and maybe her lungs. She is too old for any kind of surgery or treatment, as it would kill her faster than just letting things go as they
will.

Yet, she is tough, and is hanging in there. She has given us quite a few scares in the past 3+ years, but alot of joy also. I live too far away to see her as often as I would like, but I hitch a ride on my hubby's semi as often as it goes north towards Ohio. I recently started painting, and I am trying to do as many of her as I can NOW, so that I can enjoy capturing her; and then LATER, I wil have visual memories. She has been, my "hero", since I grew up; and got over all the dumb kid-type resentments, and silly middle child hurts. She is a wonderful woman, who truly was a supermom, in my eyes.

Then there was this little boy, who is now 21 years old in age. He is special needs, with multiple handicaps. He is one of those "things" that people try to tell me what to do about and how to do it. He is not the political side of things for the most part, tho' I am about to try and get alot more vocal with all of the politicians in the state of Mississippi and those who represent us in Washington D.C. There is a shortage of beds, and care, and aid for those of us who deal with children like my son. I know I am not the only one whose child has gotten too big and too strong for them to handle; or whose behavior has worsened with time from all the different syndromes and problems that beset him. It is not his fault that he is the way he is, nor is it mine, since I am his stepmother; not that I do not think of him as mine in all respects. Yet it was the alcohol and drugs while he was in utero that cause so very many of his problems. If there are those of you out there who are pregnant, and still drinking...not that "much" you say, and doing drugs...not the "hard ones" you say...well come and talk to me...and I will show you and tell you what it can and will cause. The baby literally lives in alcohol not water inside the uterus where it is pickled while developing; and the drugs, well, the neurological mess that can create on top of the other damage....it is not a pretty sight.

He is a wonderful child, in so very many ways. He has been a blessing from the first time I met him. Yet he is now, in an adult body, without the emotional ability to handle it. A challenge, YES, but one I have taken on out of love; but it is beginning to wear me out. I get a few hours a month when his dad is home off the road, and a few hours a week with a state provided caregiver; so I am more fortunate than some. I just get very tired. Which is why I simply forgot I started this blog. My mind does not function quite as well as it used to...without lots of notes to tell me what to do and when to do it....lol.

Then there was my kidney stone, in October of 2006, my cancer scare in September of 2007...they kept me down and out for a bit; but the joy that came from the cancer scare was that I took up the challenge my daughter had laid down for me two years ago...to pick up a brush instead of a mouse. She forgot to tell me one thing...how to lay it back down...lol. Of course, I can only paint if my son is asleep, at school (which most days he refuses to go to), or with his caregiver.

OH, and by the way....I get a few points, not enough to have skipped writing for 3 years, but maybe a few. My hubby and I quit smoking in August of 2006. In order to keep from backsliding, or going nuts over the lack of a stress reliever, I have cleared about 6-8 acres of the 16 we are living on. Just me, my battery operated saw, my hand saw, my clippers, and my rake...well...I do have a wheeled weedeater, that I have practically worn out, that helps too. My favorite spot is how the driveway looks now:
It does look good, but there is now alot more "lawn" (weeds, I suppose, but green when it is cut) to mow. I built a split-rail type fence all along the front acreage,because I got tired of burning all the pine trees we were thinning out.
It was alot of work, but I like how it looks.



Well....enough for today...I hope you will come back. I plan to write feelings and poetry type things in this blog; and if you want to see my paintings, you can look at my other blog: http://artworkbysusanrichards.blogspot.com/

Another Day

Learning how to use this particular editor, is teaching me a number of ways to improvise, and I am also having to remember alot more HTML, than I was planning to. However, I want this to look, the way I want it to look, not just how it decides to put it together; so far this is not easy. The help features are not exactly simple to use, or at least not for me, because everytime I try a search, it comes up empty. I submitted questions in the help forum, but in the list of questions others had asked, there seemed to be quite a few with no answers. Which begs the question of whether there are no answers?..or no one is answering the questions. I wanted the paintings to go along with each posting, but it does not seem to work that way, or at least not so far....but I am not quitting....lol

As for my painting, after I worked from some books and tutorials, for a bit, I had this compulsion to do portraits as well as landscapes. At the beginning, I had alot of nice people, who looked pretty good, as people go; they just did not look like the person I was painting.

I did not give up tho', and slowly but surely, I learned how to do a little bit better; and they began to look like that person. Everyday, I learn more and more. Every portrait, I master more and more skills. I have found that I truly enjoy the challenge of capturing someone on canvas. I am working on my skills by doing self-portraits, catpive subject matter...lol.
My Love
Acrylics on 12x12 paper

I enjoyed painting this portrait of my husband, and plan on doing many more of him...lol...my favorite subject.

My Son
Acrylics on 12x12 paper

He is another of my favorite subjects, but with his ADHD and other problems, I have trouble getting him to hold still long enough to paint...lol.

My Parents
Acrylics on a 9x12 canvas panel

My parents are getting a bit older, and my mom has been sick alot lately. I wanted to paint some pictures of her, and my father, now while they were still with us. It is only the first of what I have done...and hopefully will be part of a series.

Here we go...

I started painting at the end of August, during a cancer scare; I needed something to keep me occupied during all the testing and surgery and mostly all the weeks of waiting in between. My daughter, also an artist, had been challenging me for two years to try painting with a brush, not a mouse. So, I tried it; and I can only see one problem....I cannot stop. I have heard of art therapy for years; but never ever realized what it meant. The peace that comes over me, the joy of creation, the thrill of colors....all feelings I am sure many, many others have had before me. Yet somehow when it is new to you, it is NEW.

There are any number of quotes from other artists...past and present that are interesting, but one that I read by Picasso, holds great meaning for me, for it seems to describe what happens for me when I paint...."Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." Another, that encompasses all of what I do, is by Amy Lowell: "Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in." I do that with my work on my websites, poetry and painting; or at least I try...there is so much to express...and so little time.

Some of the first paintings I did, were helped by some art instruction books, tutorials for digital art, and paintings that I had gathered over the years. Most these were books that gave me permission to use their work, to help me learn. Others were less clear. Those paintings from books and tutorials are not for sale, just here to give you an idea of my progress.

The Farm
Mixed mediums on an 8x11 canvas panel

This was to be a study in glazing, I just liked the picture,and took it in another direction. The Book was written by S.H.McGuire, tho' I am not sure whose painting it is based on.

A Study In Perspective
Mixed mediums on an 8x10 canvas panel

This was based on a PhotoImpact tutorial, a software program that I love, and use alot. The tutorial was taught by Grace Farquhar.

Flying Free
Acrylics on a 14x18 canvas panel

This was also based on a PhotoImpact tutorial, that I had done, and thought would be fun to do with acrylics. The tutorial was taught by Norma Murphy.