Short Story Long

We seemed to have a warm late-fall, leading into the holidays and through the new year.  I am happy to see the snow during the snow months; it gives me hope that the spring months with be springy, and the sunny months will grow lots of tomatoes.   I look forward to March, and its green promises of St. Patrick's Day and the First Day of Spring.  In between now and then, I'm just knitting and reading and trying to achieve small victories, so that when April and May arrive, I will be ready for hours outside in the dirt!  

I have been admiring the work of Luiz L. on Flickr , and decided I should do more still life.  What holds me back is that, while I have a lovely morning window, I don't have a surface or background that I find pleasing.  Not one nearby, or that would work for constant rearranging.  I love the warm tones of Luiz's table, and think perhaps this spring or summer I will have to build myself a little photo prop surface.   In the meantime, I purchased a fancy piece of paper at my favorite art supply store, with the idea that I would use it for a "wallpaper" background.  A few days later, I collected a few items for a still life to experiment a bit.  Eventually switching to a stack of tea cups, I removed the flowers, books, etc.  In spite of the very busy patterns, I ended up with an image that I think has a good flow of shapes, lines and colors.   I collect tea cups - although it's been a while since I've added to the collection....