A Little Distraction, Part 2

I'm now comfortably ensconced in my new, temporary digs - although the studio isn't quite ready yet. But, in the time leading up to my move since my last blog, I did manage to do a little work.... the results shown here. Talk about 'a little distraction'!! Moving disrupts EVERYTHING; even the IDEA of painting. The worst part, or best, depending on your point of view, is that I'm still floating! I STILL have no idea where or what is next. And every time I try to be efficient and 'organize' it to happen, well, it just falls through - no matter WHERE I try to make my next home. An example: I spent a week in LeRouret, in the Cote d'Azur (a favorite part of the world to be sure...) in late April. I planned the trip, thinking that it would be a 'home' scouting trip; meeting with a few key people about possible caretaking positions, looking at VERY cheap places to perhaps purchase by some miracle (well outside the magic circle around Nice and Cannes), etc. Every time I set out, I felt overwhelmed. I got lost (ask my friends - I never really get lost, and if I do, I love the adventure of finding my way out), was stopped by torrential downpours, or landslides (seriously!)and the meetings fell through, bar the last night's in St. Agnes. I fought against this every day.... and every day, I'd come to the fact that I needed to just keep 'working', looking for paintings in the landscape and the people around me, letting the magic of the place bring the answers, solutions and people who may show the way, to me. Even on the very last day, when a long trip to Fontan was planned, with an invitation to a party outside St. Agnes that afternoon/evening to finish off the day and trip, I had to rethink my goals for the day....turned around by a landslide. The only way up to Sospel and then Fontan was through Italy, or back toward Nice and back up. I took a big breath, looked at a map, and found that I really wanted to just stay in the area around St. Agnes. I ended up driving a bit more into the hills, found the old village, parked the car and walked. Photos, visions of paintings, breathing in the warmth of the air and the smell of the wild rosemary and thyme among other things, and looking down the slope to the town of Montan and the sea beyond. I read, and met new people much later, all within a stones throw of that same village, and came away feeling more settled than I'd felt in a week. More right. I'm sure there will be paintings coming out of that trip... I've just not had time to absorb it since my return in early May. I've another, longer trip planned back to LeRouret and the Cote d'Azur in Mid-July, and I'll just sketch, explore, photograph, and perhaps paint pleinaire if I can get my paints there in a timely manner. Last time I shipped them (and early), the paints didn't arrive for nearly 2 weeks into my planned 3 week housesit! So we'll see; but, I plan to just BE while I'm there. Plan to allow my soul to speak to me and let the paintings happen and the life happen. I realize that I AM already in this transitional phase, and my job is to be in it and recognize that it is still my life, my work, and I will find my way through the maze. I only have to listen.