Memories of Kindergarten From the Messy Studio

 It's always hard to get out to the studio when the whole family is on vacation--somehow it just feels wrong to leave the house and walk down the hill when everyone is here. However--this vacation I've been trying to run out and paint for a half an hour or so, a couple of times a day. I've even been out in the studio at night, which I love, but rarely do.

I'm working on about ten paintings on watercolor paper, which I tape down to pieces of cardboard. I can stand them up to dry and work on them simultaneously, which is great with these intuitive paintings--a layer can dry on canvas A while I work on canvas B and C and D and so on...

I cannot emphasize how much fun I'm having! It occurred to me last night that this is how I felt when I painted in Mrs. Coquillard's kindergarten class back in  nineteen-mumble-mumble. 

My kindergarten was a half-day kindergarten, but we still had naptime, which I hated. I was not a 'lie down and rest' kind of kid, but I was a 'do what the teacher says' kind of kid, so I laid on my little multicolored rug when I was supposed to, like a good girl. BUT--and this is the good part--we took turns, and during naptime every day, two lucky kids got to put on the big painting shirts and paint at the easel while everyone else rested. I adored painting at the easel. The tempera paint had a wonderful smell (that to this day makes me feel like 'no nap today!') and a thick consistency that really covered the paper. Mrs. Coquillard let us paint whatever and however we wanted to, which I loved--I loved everything about painting, even then...

And that kind of painting--that being in the zone, just mindlessly painting and moving the paint around and not worrying about what the end product is--I love that. I plug my iphone into my little speakers and play my studio playlist and dance and sing and paint. 

Life does not get any better than this. Seriously.