We woke to sunshine today!  It’s amazing how a little sun can change an attitude almost instantly!

Every time we’d had bits of sun since the last couple of snowfalls I’ve been fascinated by the shadows of trees on the flat white snow.  I’d be out with Katie, waiting for her to do her thing and the sun would pop out.  I’d notice the beautiful crisp blue gray shadows and think that I’d like to try to paint them.  I’d hope she’d hurry up so I could go get the camera and capture the image for later.  Inevitably the sun would slide back behind a cloud by the time we made it to the house.

I have a photo from last winter that I’ve been meaning to paint…or try to paint…with water color.  I can see it in my mind…but water colors are so free spirited, you just never know what they will decide to do.  So I’ve been sort of stuck; afraid that I can’t make it work the way I want it to I haven’t tried.

Then another blogger suggested we each try to draw something, even though few of us are artists.  She suggested that we try something that was outside our comfort zone.  And I had a box of oil pastels that another person had given me years ago, and a small sketch book with white sheets of paper just waiting.    So I tried.

I wasn’t that pleased with the result.  Yet it wasn’t terrible either.  A quick slash of colors across the white paper, more thought about the shadow.  After all, this composition is supposed to be about the shadow.  But then I was stuck again.

Until another blogger mentioned that she was reading “Trust the Process” by Shaun McNiff.  He talks about just getting on with it, letting yourself make mistakes, moving from one art form to another, try something new…all good advice.  So today with the sun shining brightly I was out with my camera, capturing those illusive shadows, making an image that I will play with later once the sun goes down.  Trying to convey the transparency combined with sharpness of shadows lying low across my snow covered lawn.

We’ll see.  I’m trying to trust the process.