Been a little quiet in posting lately, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been crazy busy. The last post was during the Winter Holidays, and that was also the one-year mark of trying to figure out what on earth was going on in my body that caused me to lose vision. After many tests, and changing several doctors, we finally have a diagnosis.
Ankylosing Spondylitis.
Or “Bamboo Spine”
Not exactly the best news, but it has given us a direction on medications to try out. When numbers jumped up around the holidays, I made the difficult choice to keep my immune-compromised son home from kindergarten until he was vaccinated. Trying to increase my work hours, covid, a 5 year old, and finding out my spine was trying to become a solid was a lot to handle. But it was also a time to be at home and learn something new, make something beautiful for my son to see.
I was gifted some canvas, and acrylic paints for Christmas! I was very excited, and yet nervous to start. I knew I would love them, but I also knew that it would be very, very expensive compared to watercolour painting. Kind of like how many artists keep piles of ‘good paper’ around because they don’t want to ‘waste it’ on learning. PIIIISH-SHAW! Get into all your supplies, and don’t hold back for a moment! Our learning journey is as messy as our lives, but that’s what makes it wonderful.
I still haven’t had a chance to take a real art class, one day I hope to. It would be great to learn about brushes, angles, and strokes from another human. I’m one of those, “I need to ask questions to learn things” kinda gal. Instead, I turned to what everyone does, the youtubes.
The first thing I learned (through trial by fire) was that watercolour supplies DO NOT always work with acrylics. The first few canvas creations were a dripping horrible Dr. Suess mess, but I did learn a lot! After that, I found a few artists that used household items to paint, and that really helped me.
Now I feel more confident trying whatever works to get my art onto canvas. I started painting a ‘wet coast’ series. Living in Vancouver is beautiful! It rains a lot, but it’s why our forests are so vibrant and lush. In these paintings, I wanted to try and capture a beautiful moment.
I’m really loving acrylics, and I can’t wait to learn more!
