On Earth Day, I spent some time under my favorite tree with my favorite art supplies. After some thought, I decided to stash the pencil and eraser back in by bag and do everything by instinct. As I splashed the paint around, it started to rain, and I let that become part of the painting too. I first thought of who would be living in the brook splashing by my feet, and a dark-eyed naiad started to take form. And while that one started to dry/get drizzled on, I grabbed the other sketchbook and started to use the firey colors that hadn't been in the first painting, inspired by the luscious pink blossoms overhead. My favorite, final touch was a small pink petal from my weeping cherry tree that spiraled down and landed right in the paint. It was like getting a kiss from the tree.

A few years ago, I got this crazy idea that I would paint every day in May. And post the paintings here on my blog. And invite others to do the same. ♥

Here's how it works:
Commit to create something every day in the month of May. (Note: one year I did over 31 paintings. I felt really rushed. So this year, I will spend more than one day on a painting if I want to. You can do the same, or do 31 separate paintings, or take 31 photos, make collages, or write a page of your novel every day.)

They can be tiny.

They can be crap. :)

They can be about anything you want.

At the end of the month, a month that has a solid week of recitals and hours of driving time and packing up the kids to bring to my parents so the house can be perfectly quiet, I will have done 31 days of paintings. I may hate them all! I may have one I love, or I may think all of them are my best work yet. But I do know that I function better painting than when I'm NOT painting. And hopefully after all those paintings I will learn something new.

So...who wants to join me?

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Graphics to link back and use for your own "Every Day" journey:


Feel free to join the Flickr group here: Every Day In May. Go! Share your stuff!

(Happy fruit, on my toaster oven, between cookies and art projects.)

I can't believe it's been a MONTH since I last posted. Life has been very, very full. Exciting, emotional, ecstatic, exhausting. I have lots of things I want to write about, and lots of things I promised to write about. There will be paintings up soon, though, lots of them. Because....

I'm doing Every Day In May this year. And so are you. Details to come.