Milestones and Transitions

Transition and painting are not favourable companions for me. I paint the most when: 1. I'm feeling well and energetic and 2. I have an established well worn routine. Both of these have been changed a bit this fall. I had eye surgery that took two months to normalize and during this time we changed our gallery operations from 7 days a week to "Open by Appointment' and stopped custom framing. This is a milestone, since we have operated this gallery for over twenty years. BUT we have not retired! The gallery was wonderful for meeting people from all over the world and both my wife and I love people, BUT it tied us down and often kept me from doing as much PAINTING as I would have liked to.

So, as Bob Dylan put it, "The Times They Are A-changing" and we want to expand our horizons and "roam a bit". I always paint wherever I go and this winter I hope to bring home a lot of scenes from Mexico and Florida. April will find us in the Canadian Shield to paint the breakup of ice on the lakes and rivers and, if the Good Lord is willing and the creeks don't rise, late May and June I'll look for springtime in the high Rockies. North Vancouver Island and home is the world's best place to be in the summer. I'll be back painting my favourite haunts here. So stick with me -I'll keep you posted!

Let me talk a bit about mediums. I'll be traveling by plane to Mexico and Florida and try for portability. My choice for air travel is usually watercolours but as long as you keep your images on paper you can use acrylics or pastel. On site painting with acrylics is somewhat restrictive since they dry so quickly, I've been trying out the Golden Company's new OPEN ACRYLICS that have a drying time up to ten times slower than regular ones. They still dry a lot faster than oils and are a good alternative for travel so you won't have to worry about bringing back wet panels. We tried them out at The Hills workshop and students generally liked them.

When I paint the Shield in Manitoba/Ontario and later The Rockies, we will travel by car and be free to use whatever medium is suitable - probably my nostalgic old oils! The big trick with travel, since I don't have a satellite connection is keeping up with this blog and my website at http://www.henschel.ca/ Meanwhile, Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Frolige Weinachten and Joyeaux Noel! The Jolly Holly, by the way, is in front of our gallery door.