Christmas tree season wish

"Christmas Tree Season," 5 x 7 watercolor holiday greeting card

On a cold winter night in December, almost nothing is more fun than driving around showing your young children the bright Christmas lights on trees and other decorations, watching their eyes light up. 

Remember? The heater turned on high, the defroster working to keep the windshield clear? Wiping the side windows to keep them clear so the kids could see better, dimming your car lights in neighborhoods as you slowed down?

This year the decorations have gone up earlier than usual, because we need that color, that spirit, those memories more than ever. 

We should treasure them even more for those of us still healthy, as  we think what a terrible year this is going to be for millions who have had their holidays darkened by disease and death.

I hope these watercolor cards, and the memories, help lift all our spirits.

Together Time

"Together," 5 x 7 watercolor holiday greeting card

In these days of cold, of pandemic and racism and political assaults on humanity, what we need most, is time for being together.

Children know that as they miss their teachers; teachers know that as they miss working in person with their students.

 I can't imagine walking around the classroom without being able to  interact with my students one on-one.

My former colleagues tell me the joy of teaching is gone. So also for our students, so is the joy of learning.

In this winter of pandemic, what we need most, to survive, is  to be together...as couples, as individuals, as survivors.

May we find some way to get  there, hunkered down, surviving in a pandemic, abetted by a lack of leadership  that  plays golf, as Nero fiddles, or calls for a prayer breakfast.

Today's watercolor, as simple as holding hands we we most need them, "Together."

Cold front coming

"Cold Front," 5 x 7 watercolor holiday greeting card

You can almost feel it coming. You can see it as the sky turns hazy, then gray, making shorter days even shorter.  You can hear it at night as the wind rises. 

You don't need a weather forecast, except to see  how far away it is,  what the temperature is like in northwest Oklahoma, where the advancing bands of rain and snow  have reached.

"Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains" is not just a song in Oklahoma, but reality in changing seasons. 

Winter may officially be three weeks away, but cold fronts bring winter weather when they arrive, regardless of a human calendar.

December debut

"December Sky," 5 x 7 watercolor holiday greeting card

'Tis a month of cold, and  of stars, and increasing darkness, where stars shine brighter.

November watercolors

November Watercolor Slide Show

My pandemic watercolor therapy, began in March,  continued in November. 

This month's slide show (turn on sound) features 25 paintings, most of them from my annual holiday greeting card tradition, 5 x 7 originals I send to people. 

Although I didn't exactly paint one a day since I tend to do them several at a time, they were posted daily in this blog, along with comments. These help me persevere, and hopefully bring color and rational thought into this irrational year. . This month's slide show doesn't include three family birthday cards.

They bring to a total of 195 paintings on this blog in the 259 days since mid-March when the pandemic first exploded here.

Here are the monthly totals: March--16; April-July--98 (July was WorldWatercolor Month challenge of one a day); august--15; September--21.

Here's a link to the April-July slide show, if you're interested.

Watercolors during pandemic