A Very Time-Consuming Painting

For the last half of January, all of February, and most of March, I was working obsessively (in the evenings and on weekends) on a small painting of our backyard. The painting was very hard for me to finish because the scene I was trying to capture included about a billion leaves. I’m a beginner in acrylics and don’t know how to suggest leaves the way a more skilled painter would do. No, instead I have to sit there and paint every leaf individually, one by one, because I haven’t mastered any advanced techniques yet. Oh my gosh, painting all those leaves was so laborious. I kept complaining (jokingly) to Rob that I was “in a hell of leaves.”

But to be honest, I loved being in that hell of leaves. I loved working on my dumb painting every evening as Buntin sat in my lap doing “crabby cuddles” (purring and snuggling and then growling softly whenever I had the gall to move). I fell into the habit of listening to old episodes of Unsolved Mysteries on my phone as I worked. Unsolved Mysteries was such a great show, especially the “Lost Loves” segments, in which family members or old friends would be reunited after long years of searching for one another. Almost every night as I listened I’d get Buntin’s fur wet with tears.

When I finally finished my painting on March 21, I felt relieved but also a tiny bit lost. What fun little project would I work on next? Luckily, spring had sprung while I was painting, so there were lots of fresh possibilities. I could take pictures of our beautiful white plum tree that I like to call the Snow Queen . . . or plant more purple coneflowers for the butterflies to enjoy . . . or I could make a cake for Rob and garnish it with wild violets. Winter was over, and maybe the pandemic would be over soon too. It was a whole new world with so much to look forward to.

Tabitha and Julie Belle among the ferns:

Golden ragwort galore:

The wild azaleas in bloom:

American plum blossoms: