Spring Fever

Annie in Reeds Gap State Park during today's hike to gather landscape source material

This month has absolutely flown past me. In addition to a bad case of spring fever, there have been a few distractions that have cut into my easel time. But it's (almost) all good.

To start with, we had some work done on our home. I'm still awaiting the arrival of new windows for my studio, but in the meantime I've completely re-organized our basement following some of the improvements that we made to it. I now have a much better system in place for my picture frames, glass, etc. Hooray! I look forward to leveraging this slick organizational scheme during my upcoming season of art shows, when my life becomes much more chaotic.

In addition, I've nearly finalized my outdoor art show schedule. It will be largely similar to previous years with shows in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia as well as Armonk, New York. I am just waiting to hear word on one last show in New York City for late this year.

Speaking of New York, I had planned to participate in the Bike the 5 Boros ride this spring, but because I am nursing a bad hip right now, I will not be attending. No, I did not "over train." This bum hip has been bugging me for years, although my training for the ride may have brought it to a fierce crescendo this spring. This is the not-so-good part of my spring because both my schedule and my focus have been distracted by myriad doctors appointments over the past few weeks. I'm disappointed about not doing the bike ride because I wanted to use the outing as an opportunity to gather new cityscape source material from a spoke's perspective. To make up for my city withdrawal, I'm tentatively planning a trip to Philadelphia this week where I plan to take in the Cezanne exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Finally, it is almost warm enough for me to start plein air painting. I'm still waiting for the trees to progress a bit beyond their barren, stick-like state. Today I escaped to Reeds Gap State Park in central Pennsylvania with my husband and our trusty studio mascot, Annie. The trees have not yet leafed out fully, but we're due for some much milder weather this weekend and then I think that spring will have finally sprung.

Over the next month, you will see some new landscapes and cityscapes as I prepare for my first outdoor art show in Philadelphia during the first week of June. Stay tuned.