Studio Peek #1

I've been teaching myself how to paint.

Well, more like I've been just..painting.

I've never tried to paint a real painting before, just a few half attempts here and there over the years.

This just sort of happened, and I'm hanging on for the ride. I didn't have anything to do, other than work on my laptop and sit at the one really good wifi cafe in the small community to which I moved in 2021.

I didn't know anyone. I was an outsider.

There wasn't much TO do here. The gatherings are not always my thing. A few adventures here and there with acquaintances that soon disappeared. (Think: a four-wheeler ride through thick mud - without mud flaps!)

So I was keen to find some activities that would soothe my active mind and maybe make use of my idle hands.

To start with, this is not my studio.

This is a weekly art-in I discovered happening at the local crisis center.

One to four artists gather on any given week, and we just do art and talk.

It's one of my little heaven-on-Earth things.

And that amazes me..because not only did I not know any artists here when I came to the desert, but there usually isn't the right paint, or the session flies by and I have to clean up suddenly so they can admit a client to the center.

But it's better than not making art.

I also work once a week (weather depending) in an outdoor area of a local gallery where I have a permanent exhibit.

The gallerist who opens for me had to miss three weeks in a row, so she finally just gave me the keys, which she'd left on the seat of her pickup truck outside of the church where she and her family spent their morning.

It's often too windy or hot or even raining, but I cherish this time just as much as my other weekly studio session.

The last time we were able to get together, her three kids played a kazoo and caught flies with their bare hands to feed to a nest of Cactus Wren hatchlings they had saved from a Bull Snake.

The little boy sat next to me and told me about his chess video game, and I gave his younger sister one of my frames to display a painting she'd done on a scrap of loose canvas.

I occasionally ask one or the other of the women I do this with what they think, and sometimes they'll say I should add black outlines for definition or that I actually did mix the color correctly.

But mostly, I'm driving to the space, unloading and setting up, going at it with hope, determination, and a sense of humor, and practicing the art of knowing when to stop.

Sometimes it's done and the women hands me a pen, telling me to sign it. Other times I know I've reached a stopping point, and that coming back to a painting later will resolve whatever nagging sense I felt about it not quite going how I'd hoped.

It's amazing to me how a fresh coat of paint can really brighten things up.

:) Jadene Mayla

PS: If you'd like to see some of my work, here's a social post I made with a shot taken by the gallerist.