New Routines

So, life for the Potter is anything but dull. We have moved into our new house - in Lake Arrowhead - but are still trickling over things from the other house and we wait for the bank to finalize the sale. We are trying to keep up on watering and general maintenance while we wait as we have a very nice lady who is anxious to move in, work in the garden and spend her retirement years there. It still makes me sad to be there, but this is all for the best and our new house meets our needs so much better. In time Franz will have new gardening beds in. Now I have lots of room for painting projects. The girls have their own rooms and bathroom and we have a Finnish Helo sauna which I have to say feels really good.

Things have been crazy though. I now go down to Laguna on Thursday mornings and Friday afternoons, however there was also an MFA critique last Wednesday night, so I was home by ten thirty then turned around and drove back at eight the next morning. I was brain dead for that class. I will need to sort out a place to sleep down there for the next one - if I have hopes of being alert the next day. I really enjoy my classes. My Thursday class is really a critical look at figuration vrs. Modernism. We are reading some tough essays but I enjoy the discussion in class. The Friday class is a six hour figure painting course with Joseph Todorovich - who is an amazing painter (his painting at the top). We are working on the Zorn palette this week - you use four colors, cadmium red, black, white and yellow ochre. The second painting above is by Zorn - all those greens, everything you see is created with those four colors. It is really amazing. I will upload my figure painting done last week tomorrow. My home work is to copy a master painting using this palette. I think I am settled on a painting by Sargent. I'll let you know.

This is all great and love being at school. I am making good friends and thriving on the dialogue. However, when at home I am finding it difficult to balance school and home life - girl's schedules. We have been working on getting MaCall and her two friends down to Redland's twice a week for Redland's Symphony practice www.redlandssymphony.com and I confess Eloise is missing out so far as I have not arranged for her lessons yet - trying to sort out when we have a car etc. Health wise I have had some tough days with all of the driving then having to study and paint on my days at home. I get overwhelmed and cry, then Franz works hard to make everything okay. He did drive me down the Friday before last and then he and the girls picked me up at seven and went to dinner at the beach. That was nice. We will do what it takes to make things work.

School seems to be going well for the girls and for Franz. We will settle in. It takes time, new place, new routine. I think I have finally stopped looking up to the ceiling for the pots and pans - now in a drawer instead of in the hanging rack.

The raccoons are another story...