Harvest is almost over and I better get busy.

Acrylic painting  "taking in the go"  done in 2010  sold

Acrylic painting from 2010  " Chad in the Swather"  Sold

My farmer, his brother, nephew and cousin, (it's a real family affair) have been busy every day, often until the wee hours of the next morning harvesting their crops.  Peas, wheat, canola and today they are bringing in flax.  Together they have approximately 10 thousand acres and four great big, yellow combines.  It's September 14th and they are almost done.  This may be the earliest I have seen harvest finished since I came to the farm, but that was only 7 years ago.  

Acrylic painting  "Swaths"  2010  Sold

It's a lot of work and coming to an end really soon.  

That means....I better clean up my art supplies~! 

You see, this isn't the type of operation where the women folk spend all day cooking pies and turkeys then haul it all out to the field for the men folk to have a big meal.  These guys get started and don't stop.  I pack my farmer a bunch of sandwiches, some raw veggies and fruit, maybe a cookie and a muffin or two, just make sure it doesn't make a mess and he can eat it and still steer the combine.  Easy peasy!  And that means I have lots of time to get creative.



To spark my imagination I decided to sign up for another on-line art class.  I enjoyed Joanne Sharpes classes so much I though I would check out a few other instructors.  I stumbled across Dirty Footprints Studio and her 21 Secrets Art Journal classes.  21 different teachers, 21 different ideas and 21 different ways of teaching.  I hit the mother lode!  So far I have worked my way through 15 of the classes.  http://www.dirtyfootprints-studio.com/2008/05/21-secrets-art-journal-playground.html



I have tried my hand at painting flowers with credit cards, had a great time cutting up magazines and turning them into some interesting collages and watched Jane Davenport draw her amazing ladies and put together the most beautiful journal pages.  I cut up some of my art and turned them into a book of pockets and 7 postcards for my niece.  That was Dale Anne Potter's class called Personal Acts of Kindness and it was just choc full of wonderful ideas.

I think the best thing about these 21 classes is that I am finding something in each and every one of them that is interesting and the art I'm making now is a combination of many of those ideas. 

With harvest coming to an end so will my uninterrupted hours of creative time.  I better get busy with the last 6 classes, I'm sure I'm missing out on some more wonderful ideas.