Rainy Repose - 20"x20" Acrylic on Canvas

Wouldn’t you know the very day I get back to painting after “Life” getting in the way of painting goals it would rain? This is why the piece is named “Rainy Repose.” Despite this wet obstacle I went ahead and painted. It was a piece I had started at the end of May and hadn’t gotten back to it. It is rare that I start a piece and do not finish it within a sitting or two, in the past, when I have put a piece aside too long it turned out to be a complete flop. I am very pleased with the results and I think the summer shower added to my mood and it reflected nicely on the canvas. The time in between must have been needed to make this piece successful. To me she seems so calm and ok with waiting on the rain. A very comfortable piece says acceptance rather than struggle.

I have been anticipating being able to paint outside since February and I have painted outside this spring, but the last month or so I have unintentionally put off painting. I had a bunch of spring repairs to do (one being a repair from a limb going through our camper trailer roof!) and the back yard to clean up from the winter. I ended up doing so many of these things that I put myself into a Fibromyalgia flare followed by an upper repertory infection that lingered for about three weeks. I do need to feel good to be creative. Whew, maybe all of those delays and frustrations are over.

Although I haven’t been painting it doesn’t mean that I have ignored everything to do with my paintings. I have been doing the other, not so creative stuff. I have two new galleries! I can now be found regularly at The Collective Art Gallery of Topeka and The Topeka Art Guild. As well as couple of other new prospects... to be announced as they come into reality. I have been working on a redesign of my Feminine Desert book to be available like my Kansas Wildflower book. Then I have been doing research for my Five Element Tarot Series and exploring the Flint Hills for my Kansas Wildflower series.

Also, I have once again redesigned my site… it’s almost getting to be a quarterly event. I found a new service that is specifically geared for artists and if all goes well, I believe it will be my final “parking spot.” My main concern is to provide a place for you to keep up with all my stuff and you will always be able to find me at www.leivan.net no matter where I decide to park the site.

Finally, I want to mention in this post, I have added a live webcam of our back porch to my site. It can be found on my front page www.leivan.net or leivan.camstreams.com. The porch is one of my most favorite places to paint. Our life seems to revolve around that space in the summer time. I love to be outdoors as much as possible. You can check it out on occasion to see if you can catch me painting. Camstreams.com also makes chat available on the webcam’s homepage and I have had quite a few hits on it in the short week that I have had it available. I thought it would be a fun addition to the interaction of my website.