When Life Gives You Lemons (and other cliches)

Without my camera for the past six weeks, I've been pouring my creative energies into other outlets.  I have spent more time painting (see, it's always something) and while I do love it, I am not a natural.  I took a class at the local arts center, which I loved, but really challenged my abilities. There were quite a few times when I wanted to quit because I just could not get what was in my head on that canvas.

Anyway, here are a few of my paintings.  We did them all within three hours on canvas panels.  It was quite freeing to do these studies, and be finished with them every class, ready for a blank canvas the next week.  There were so many things my teacher said that sounded like sayings you'd find on Yogi tea bag tags, i.e., "Once the freshness is gone, you can't get it back" or "challenge yourself to take something ordinary and make it beautiful."  I wanted to stop and write them down, but had to keep going.