Year of the White Metal Rat

My goal-making (and every other kind of planning) coincides with the St. Clement school calendar.  Anticipating the change to my life when my son would start full-day, full-week school was a major impetus for me to pick up painting again in 2015. At the end of last summer, I sat down again to evaluate my progress and make plans for the coming school/Amanda year. And over the last two weeks of winter break, I made a list of long-term painting goals. Some might call them “resolutions,” but that is just a coincidence.

1. Try new media and supports. This is an ongoing one. Last fall I finally tried pastel, and I worked on sanded papers, coated boards, and Gatorboard that I primed with a gritty gesso. I’d like to try Aquarelle crayons with other media, including gouache, which I picked up once last year.
2. Try plein-air painting. I haven’t done this since Mr. Bartman made us do it in high school. It’s -4 degrees out as I type, so this will wait.
3. Write more frequently. I wrote for my li’l blog about once a month last year, and I know I can at least double that.
4. Enter a competition. I submitted a painting for a show—a display, really—at a local art store. I could try something bigger.
5. Show work in person. Ugh. This one is most daunting because it makes me vulnerable and accountable. I’ve talked about hosting my own show in my house. Fine. I’ll do it.
6. Create a still-life table. Setting up good still lifes is a skill in itself. But it sure allows for quick, editable subject matter and, for me, leads to the last item on this list.
7. Paint new subjects. I am big on figure painting with oils, and with pastels I’ve done many landscapes. I haven’t done many still lifes, unless you include my sleeping pets.

 
I just read that 2017 is the Year of the Red Fire Chicken in the Chinese astrological calendar, which of course aroused my curiosity. Not just Year of the Chicken, but RED FIRE CHICKEN! I learned that planning around the school calendar is much easier than trying to plan around the Chinese calendar, which is much more complicated but certainly more interesting. I also learned that my multi-faceted Chinese birth chart names me a white metal rat. Bitchin’! (Very coincidentally, my first childhood pet was a white mouse named Penny.)

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