It’s been a while since I posted anything. I’ve been through an interesting several months. I have mentioned having health issues, and without going into too much detail in a public forum, I spent a month during March and April in Charlottesville having a stem cell transplant. It was not an easy process. While I was in the hospital (about two weeks), I painted most every day. The doctors and nurses were impressed. Unfortunately, it takes about ten days to crash hard from the stem cell transplant process, so near the end of that time I was feeling pretty badly. Once I was discharged, and we moved to our AirBnB I really didn’t feel like painting, so I did very little. I am slowly getting back into it, and I am finishing up all of my treatment soon. I am hoping for a more normal life in the near future.

Here are a couple of the sketches I did while in the hospital. I was not trying to do finished pieces. I was just hoping that doing creative things would help me cope. It did.

It was early spring, so I did several florals. I don’t do a lot of florals, but I enjoyed experimenting.

One day my husband walked from our AirBnB to the hospital and on the way he took a picture of the Rotunda on the UVA campus. This very famous building was designed by Thomas Jefferson. It was ambitious, but I took it on and was happy with the result.

This one is a Scottish cow, from an old photo.

I don’t do many still lifes, but this was fun.

By this time I was starting to feel bad so I decided on something geometric that might not be too taxing.

This final one was done after I left the hospital while we were in our AirBnB.

There are more but these are the highlights. I’m glad I have them. They are a reminder of the healing process. I had hoped to paint every day, but I got to the point where I just didn’t have the energy or the inspiration.

My sister said I should consider the Rotunda painting a study for a larger painting so I took her suggestion and repainted a much larger version here in my studio. The original photo was early spring, but I decided to make it summer. I am happy with the result. It is 14×11.

Hoping that as my treatment winds down painting will pick up. My immune system still needs some work, but once it is safe I will start doing shows again. I will also try to get in more local galleries. Stay tuned…