Friday, I made something new, French-onion-stuffed mushrooms with gruyere, these are definitely on the do again list – with a blue-cheese and pecan salad it made a perfect lunch.

Sunday, Alexis and Joe came over for Sunday lunch, and to celebrate Joe’s birthday.

We started with one of Tricia’s best things, salmon chowder, this batch was le meilleure !

On Thursday Tricia, keeping her seafood mojo going, came up with tilapia Mediterranean – she is quite creative. And New Seasons had local asparagus, this is one of our favorite times of the year.

The real excitement for the week was right out our window – the building was getting new boilers for the HVAC.

With our trip to Europe quickly approaching painting in Provence was obvious. So I did a 5×7 oil painting “Dreaming of Lavender.”

One of the ways you can use Procreat for non-digital art is as a composing tool. Artists have used sketches for centuries, but procreate adds to the creativity.

I started the painting by using a thin wash of Gamblin’s Iron Violet, and Rust Red. At this point I was not sure if I was doing a landscape or what – it happens that way sometimes. So after pondering for a bit I took a photo of the canvas, sent it to Procreate and then did some composing. After that the painting came together quite easily.

How has your week been? I hope whatever journey you had it was filled with a bit of peace and joy. And of course I thank you for following me, and encourage you to make some marks on paper to capture your moments.