Today is Friday, we are in Mukilteo, we will pack up the last few things from the storage shed we had while we were in France. Tuesday we drove up, met friends in Mountlake Terrace for lunch, then had dinner with other friends at our favorite place in Mukilteo, Cabernets and IPAs.

Tuesday Tricia had lunch with two of her friends from work, I am amused myself so they could catch up on things I know nothing about. Late that afternoon we met up with Tricia’s sister and her kids for a bit of garden golf. Wednesday the sorting of stuff began. We took trips to the donation drop off and re-discovered some forgotten clothes. Saturday we head home with a small van.

Since returning from our cruise my art has taken some new directions. Without ever changing vistas the idea of travel sketching is not the same. Possibly the biggest change is oil painting, it is just a different process. Rather than working over a sketchpad for an hour with a fountain pen and watercolor, an oil painting can take days.

With my thoughts and affections still in France this one from Provence was a joy to do.

It captures a lot of what I like about Provence, the old buildings, cypress trees, and of course the national flower of France, the iris. When we return to Portland I will be posting more paintings for sale, this one will be included.

I am liking the switch to oils, more on that in upcoming posts, but the very things that kept me from oils in the past have become what I like the most, go figure.

There are times when a bit of art is just the remedy for the stress I have while watching the news these days – I tend to sketch flowers when stressed, hmmm…

So, I better post this and get ready for a busy day. Tricia is posting her last post about Paris, it has been a joy for me to read and relive some of the time we have spent there over the years, “we will always have Paris.”

I hope your week has gone well, for those who read this and sketch I hope you have had plenty of time to make marks on paper, or canvas, or Procreate. As always I love that you take time to read this, and love it even more when I get to read your comments.