I have some updates and also some grateful for us and also a few strategies for how to start painting again. Let's get started Joe McKenzie here your watercolor coach. Let's get caught up on what's happening What's been happening here? Well the first thing that happened this spring is that my colleague that you probably see me paint many times She's a rough colleague so she looks a lot like lassie, but she's try colored She was attacked by a coyote and As the vet said the coyote wanted her dead no question about it. It was when when when we When we picked her up from the vet to bring her home. I just thought they're there. They're just no way this dog is gonna live There's just no way But she she did and she has and it is miraculous thing to see it has not broken her spirit in any way And I want to be clear the coyote did not come into our fenced area Somehow the colleague got out and it's the only time the colleagues have forgotten out I suspect she was just really agitated and she's a two-year-old she knows nothing What would she know about danger? But she clearly knows now the other really good news is that we hadn't had her groom for a really really long time So her fur especially the undercoat for a colleague around the neck is very very thick and I think that probably saved her life So good for us being negligent on that And now what we did was we reinforced the fence because yeah, you know, fence is always need mending in many ways and then I bought a variety of coyote things and Some of them blink some of them have a siren that the human can't hear they all run on solar power And so you really don't see them when you're in the backyard, but I think I'm just hoping that when the coyotes walk by You know, they kind of think oh, that's a freaky deaky house. Let's keep going I really hope that's the case because I've done a lot of reading on coyotes coyotes and it turns out that they can they can jump a seven-foot fence no problem and I don't even think our fences six foot So if they really wanted to get at the dog they could but I think they want something else I think they really want chickens and and smaller mammals if they can find them But I had never considered that that could happen and and now I have to kind of get over this idea that it could happen again So at first what we did was well, we really have we've been bringing them in early at night So she they don't we don't leave them out there and we don't leave them unattended So it takes a little bit more diligence on our part But it will be worth it because I never ever want to go through that experience again so So let's see what else happens. So that took some wind out of my sales or some other things that took the wind out of my sales And so I just you know, you can see I didn't post very much because I wasn't painting very much but But what I did do is Start to kind of reframe things which is really helpful So if there are a lot of dirty dishes in the sink instead of you might add a two to well There's dirty dishes in the sink and it's dead say good. It shows that eating happened and a good meal occurred or Let's say there's laundry to be done or is being done and as I'm folding it instead of saying oh I have to fold this laundry and been saying oh clean sheets aren't we lucky to have a bed in a house to sleep in and When it comes to barking dogs starting to get into a frenzy about something instead of getting kind of agitated with a gokogash I wish they would be quiet instead reframing it and saying yay We have warm fuzzy lovely animals to keep us company So I'm trying to reframe like all the time Just to keep my head in a positive place because usually that's what painting does for me and when painting was kind of taken away I couldn't You know is really harder to stay in that really positive headspace now when it comes to painting Especially you know talked about this so many times when you take a break from painting And I know everyone who takes a break from painting says it says yeah, I'm never gonna paint again Not in an agitate or like an angry kind of way just you know if you go through something that Really as I said takes the wind out of your sails. You just don't have the extra bandwidth for creativity And so days would go by I look inside this the studio and think oh I should paint I think I don't even remember how to do it. I don't even know if I can do it So the only way back into it is to kind of clumsily stumble back into it and of course it does not go well at all so But it did go well in terms of that I felt really good while I was doing the activity and I really really honestly Probably for the first time in my life did not care about the outcome And then I decided to get more serious about it and said okay since you've forgotten how to paint Let's simplify things and so I Simplified as much as I could just a single glass object on a table and then another single glass object on this Table because I just couldn't handle the complexity of anything and I also couldn't sustain longer than Say a 40 minute painting and that would be like 20 minutes and then take a break and then come back in for 20 minutes And I don't know when I'm gonna be able to tackle a larger piece It seems impossible, but as I've seen it you do you can come back So I'm hoping this summer that I do get some some bigger work done, but I also realize you really doesn't matter what really matters is just being kind of Centered and balanced and grateful for the most part And I really really am glad to have painting back yesterday was the first day that I painted something and you can look at that video I have it on my YouTube channel about simplifying a paint P&E and I've done videos about simplifying P&E's before but I think this might be my most efficient effort at doing it and showing it and It really felt for the first time like my brain was connecting with what I've Learned in the past and I really felt in it Completely in it not struggling to be in it, but definitely in it So I hope I'm back. Oh boy. I hope I'm back I have many times when he said that probably a bunch of times, but I think it's just my face just a serious of Getting backs right get back get back get back get back, you know fall down pick yourself up and and start again. So Oh the other thing that I did during this time was I did go back to some pet friends now I used to paint a lot of pet friends and then I stopped and But this time I just did it Why did I do it? I don't really remember it. Oh, I remember why I started doing it because that was originally Why I had started painting and I felt like the um dogs and the cats and animals really taught me how to paint So I felt an affinity toward them and I thought wow except for your own animals You really haven't painted any animals for a long time and it's it's so much fun because I I always feel after I painted A pet that they're kind of my pet in a way. I remember all the pet friends I've ever painted So it was fun to get back to that and now it's I'll still do some of that from time to time and and people send me photos and Facebook and if one really grabs me I'll I'll paint it Because I I kind of I can't resist those faces and noses So that's what's been happening for me and I want to give a special shout out to Karen H You know who you are you have hung in there with me from the very beginning and I don't think I can express how thankful I am for that it's Yeah, you know all I can say is thank you and Your painting is going really well. I'm really glad to see that so remember to keep the white your paper white your Paint sweat mass for value mix for color and I'll see you next time. Bye. Bye