Birdwatching & Bravery

Across our nearly-eleven years with the Foreign Service, my husband and I have lived in many different abodes. My favorite thing about our current place is the sunroom that my sweet husband encouraged me to make a writing/painting studio. On those days when working from home feels lonely, or I strike a creative roadblock, it’s a relief to gaze outside for a refreshing glimpse of tree and sky.

It’s also made me a bit of a birdwatcher. The species I see aren’t exotic–robins, mockingbirds, sparrows, blue jays, the occasional cardinal or oriole. But their behavior is intriguing. And as spring tips into summer, and all that April “flirting” resolves into June nests, I’ve seen an interesting pattern.

Those sweet little songbirds are freakin’ ferocious in defending their eggs.

All will be serene, the only movement a crow sauntering beneath a holly tree. A sudden burst of movement and two mockingbirds are tearing after that crow, who’s fleeing fast as wings can beat.

What’s truly amazing is how often the pursuing birds are pipsqueaks compared to the aggressor. Mockingbirds chase crows, tiny sparrows run off beefy robins, blue jays dive-bomb people and dogs.

It never seems to occur to those wee birds that they might not win. That the opponent could be too big. That they could wind up hurt.

Paintings & Progress

Like everything else at this particular (and strange!) moment in human history, my upcoming art show is in a holding pattern. The original plan went like this: I’d hang my artwork somewhere at the end of May/beginning of June, then take it down (making way for the next artist) around September 1.

But you know what they say about the best laid plans….

Sometimes a pandemic intervenes.

And so I’m currently playing a game of will-they-won’t-they with my art show venue. They might open up on May 29, allowing me to hang my artwork… or they might not. And I can’t blame them. In the surreality of this pandemic and all its spin-off effects, I can sympathize with anyone’s erring on the side of caution.

But in the meantime, I’m painting in good faith–and hope. Because whenever those venue doors do open, I want to be ready with all 25 paintings. It’s taken a lot of prayer, beaucoup paint and time, and a serious workout for my brushes, but the past five weeks have seen me knocking out paintings 19-24 (no minor miracle, given that it usually takes me 4-6 weeks to finished one piece):

Painting & Palate Cleanses

No doubt about it: I’ve been neglecting my blog. I’m a tad appalled that it’s been one two three four months since I posted anything new.

But life off-screen has been a bit busier. There was Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the associated weeks of travel. My wonderful brother’s graduation. A trip down to the family ranch in Texas to celebrate my other wonderful brother’s engagement to a wonderful girl. A move into a new apartment (complete with sunroom/painting studio for me–squeal!) A slew of freelance editing and writing projects.

But perhaps the busiest bee in my hive is this: come June, I will have a gallery show in Rockville, Maryland–my very first. And I’m in a race to the finish line as I try to whip up 12 paintings in the space between December and the end of May. No small feat, given the fact that it usually takes me 6 weeks or so to polish off just one.

No one is more surprised than I am, but despite the constant, quietly humming anxiety of oh-my-gosh-what-if-I-don’t-get-this-done at the back of my brain… I’ve actually been enjoying this intensely packed painting time. It’s meant halving my writing hours, which makes me a bit sad. But it’s also provided a much-needed palate cleanse for my writing mind, allowing me to come back to my keyboard more clear-minded and focused because I took time to step away.

And I’ve even managed to knock out a few paintings along the way, three of which make up a surf/space series for which I have to thank my brother Hunter for inspiration.

(Almost) four down… eight to go!

*Cue nail-biting here*

Like what you’ve read? Follow my blog via email or WordPress (on the sidebar), or shoot me an email (using the footer).

Bittersweet

After a multi-year hiatus–peppered with rare, stolen moments of work–and half a year of concentrated effort, I’ve finished the rough draft of my speculative novel, NIGHT GARDEN.

Emphasis on the word “rough.”

A quick glance at my Track Changes application shows 119 comments sprinkled throughout the manuscript, indicating spots where I need to weave in world-building elements, affirm timelines, research further, fill in creative pits, and shore up plot points and character motivations. In addition, I have notes scrawled on napkins, sermon notes, and Post-Its–whatever I could grab before the thought fled.

Then there are the two notebooks (including one of those ultra-sexy yellow-pads) full of the most poorly organized notes imaginable.

I’ve got just a wee bit of work to do before this baby’s ready for prime time.

Still, it’s a major accomplishment, just completing the beast. I typed 112,632 words. I wrote 35 chapters. I hit the point where I could legitimately pen that final flourish: “The End.”

I should be skipping. Dancing. Celebrating with a glass of wine.

Grand Opening: Etsy Shop!

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. To that end, this writer’s finally putting her paintings where her mouth is.

After months of talking about launching an Etsy shop, LMPeltierDesigns has gone live at last!

So if there’s a spot on your wall looking for its perfect match painting, I may have just the one sitting in my shop. Think of me as the Yente of wall art.

Watercolor is my medium of choice, because as a surfer/swimmer/life-long-aquaphile, it just seemed right. As for my subject-matter, it skews toward snapshots of the wild world. I aim for detailed, dynamic portraits of creatures great and small–a way to bring a little of the fierce, exotic loveliness of nature indoors.

Current series include:

Alaska series:

Alaska 1: Sushi for Dinner

My undersea collection:

Devil Down Below

Birthday Presents & Painting Tools

So I know it’s totally cheating to open presents a week+ before your birthday. I also know that at almost let’s-not-talk-about-it years old, I should have some self-control.

But when that promising box from Jackson’s Art Supplies showed up, I couldn’t resist.

As a watercolorist who has a hard time perceiving myself as anything but an amateur, I’ve been content to pick up my brushes here and there from Michaels and Hobby Lobby. But a few years ago, I treated myself to some tubes of Winsor & Newton’s gorgeously saturated paint…. Then my husband gave me some “grown up” watercolor paper for my last birthday…. And now my sweet parents have dropped some Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes in my lap.

Suffice it to say, I’m a wee bit spoiled.