Welcome to my new Blog!

We have moved into Yellowstone National Park for the remainder of the 2023 Summer season! (and already have an invitation to come back next Summer) Shut the front door! Are you kidding? No. 😂Working and living on the road has definitely changed our attitude about calendars and schedules, because we finally realize that we are completely in control of both! The idea of seizing opportunities was one of the core reasons we chose this lifestyle at this point in our lives. Something pretty magical happened as a result of our ultimate flexibility…..We are now living in Yellowstone. Yes, it’s true. We knew something amazing was in store for us the moment we found out Jay and I were approved to live on site, after he accepted a seasonal position in the park. We decided that getting to LIVE inside Yellowstone, at the expense of his having to work part time, seemed a small price to pay in order to be close to some of the nation’s most beautiful scenery.
We’ve both dreamed of just getting to visit Yellowstone, and now we live here! Right down to our own P O Box as park residents….it’s amazing what can happen when you tend your particular season, and put yourself out there (check out mindset shift of the week below.....I’ll elaborate 😉 ).

When we plant a seed, and don’t see it sprout right away, it isn’t the full disclosure on what’s really happening under the soil. 🌱I'll admit it. I’d become a little (no, actually, very) discouraged about a month ago, because we were having to change some plans that we’d made…and I just plain didn’t like how things were shaping up. Prior to our opportunity with Yellowstone, our terrific, well thought out plans began dissolving like a chocolate Easter Bunny left on the backseat of a Georgia mini-van (I know because I’ve done that too). We’d planned to go to British Columbia to visit colleague, Angela Fehr, to just experience her amazing backyard in the Canadian wilderness, and have to time to further build our friendship, paint, explore…all the magical things….and go on to explore more destinations in the Great North. But then we began to experience some ‘resistance in the force’, and unexpected travel expenses & logistics came to the forefront and we had to postpone our excursion north.
In addition, we’d realized fully that we wanted to stay in the northwest US to wait out summer, as it was already quite warm during the day, and living only on solar power, as we’ve done the last 15 months, doesn’t afford most travelers the use of their AC. After several phone calls, we still couldn’t find a feasible option for long term RV site rental, and weren’t sure what we were going to do….we were supposed to be doing magical things, like exploring Canada, right? 🤷🏻‍♀️💫
This was a low point, and we both wondered, were we just crazy for even being out here? Would we have to give up our travel plans altogether till cool weather returned? How was I going to keep up my watercolor membership in such a state of limbo, because of constantly moving to avoid warmer temps? 😥
We realized that we had a choice to make. Either believe that we were right where we need to be, and not be deterred, knowing that a solution would surface as we stay the course. OR, were we to allow ourselves, and our season, to dissolve like that chocolate bunny in the back seat? We chose the former. This is our season. We’ve planted, tended, and harvested for it. We have lived in many different seasons throughout life, and just like tending a garden, each season required us to live and decide how to make it the best one possible. When we were raising our sons, full time travel was not part of that particular season. And that’s okay….even though we did think about ‘what if’. While in one season, we did do things and make decisions based on future seasons to help set the stage down the road. Just like preparing the soil for next year’s garden, we’ve done our best to tend every season, and you can too.
Seeds we’d planted months, even years before in the form of ‘research and making connections’, sprouted, and opened the door wide for Yellowstone. We feel very grateful that we stayed on course, trusted the divine process, tended our season, and experienced a harvest. 🌿🌿🌿

Does painting ever get easier? Yes and No......Being on the road has shown me more landscapes in the past 3 months than I've seen in my entire life, and that's not an exaggeration. My head has literally been swimming with imagery, color mixing strategies, visual texture techniques, granulation, water balance, brushwork, and how to apply it to the new subject matter I'm constantly seeing.......aaaaaand I can really start to be hard on myself for not picking things up more quickly. BUT, I've started giving myself some grace, and I'll tell you why it's so important for us to all do this in our painting practice.
Even if we've been painting a long time, moving into new visual territory (literally or figuratively) will 100% mean that we have to go through an adjustment period. I'm definitely experiencing that, and I can be excited about the expansion, rather than feeling deflated over the challenges.
I'm adjusting to the scale, the entirely new landscape features and biomes that I'm encountering.....as Dorothy said, “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.” Well....at least not in Georgia anymore. I'm really starting to lean into my process, and trust my skills, my intuition, my taste, and all the things that are the bedrock of my ability, and spending less time worrying over the extra practice and the attempts. I don't mind admitting that I completely forgot to embrace the journey! I'm feeling much more on track and allowing the work to unfold; allowing my visual response to adapt to new environments. 
From a practical standpoint, I've allowed myself the pleasure of lightweight exercises in sketching, and painting small, to work out my sense of direction for these new trees, hills, and rocks that I'm not used to. Painting is sometimes hard, sometimes easy, but one thing that never changes is that painting has to be deliberate. Get out there and give yourself the freedom to play and explore without the weight of perfectionism. 😘

Watercolor sketches of the ponderosa pines surrounding our bus, and a north rim vantage of the Lower Falls here in Yellowstone
Thanks for joining me this week! Feel free to say hey anytime, and I'll see you all next week, and happy painting