There’s Always Things to Change

 4:30 p.m.

The skies are gray and there’s a hint of snow flurries starting with a prediction of 3-4 inches overnight. The winds the past couple of days were fierce and with the frigid temperatures last night, the deck snapped and popped occasionally making me jump. I expected to look out this morning to see a downed tree or, at least, a big limb on the deck. Nothing. Just expanding and contracting, I guess.

The last few days were spent revamping my pastel tray drawers. A few years ago, I purchased three two-drawer units. Each drawer tray has four divided section with one skinny section in the middle. The dividers between sections were glued in. I purchased two more units as my pastel inventory grew.

The drawers didn’t slide easily. Online reviews suggested rubbing soap on the sides and bottoms. It helped but needed to be applied often. I noticed the dividers were slightly higher than the sides of the drawers and caught on the top of the unit. I mentioned it to a neighbor the other day and he came over, carefully wiggled the dividers out and planed them down. One tray he sanded the sides and now all drawers work easily.

I have the units on a microwave cart on wheels so I can move the pastels closer to whichever easel I'm working at. I put Velcro between the three units and to the table so they wouldn't slide when I opened and closed the drawers. I used Velcro in case I decide to move them later. I reorganized the pastels and I’m ready to get back to pastel painting.

Called "Between the Dunes" finished 12/18

I was cleaning up and setting up a new project to work on. I had an older painting taped to the closet door “finished but unframed.” Something about it bothered me. The end of last year I had done a few that were approximately 12 x 19 inches. I don’t really like working that big.

Cut down to 11 x 14

So, I’m looking at this painting and decided I could remove strips from three sides and make it look better. The verdict is out. 

I need to do some work on it, especially along the horizon. I may shorten the height more.