Ya Gotta See This Rooster

A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place. ― Robert McKee, Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

Listen: just so we're clear, I'm not a huge fan of roosters. I mean, I like them, I think they're handsome birds, and I think they are among the most impressive of birds out there. It's just that I have memories of them crowing at all hours and keeping me awake every time I went to the Philippines to visit my relatives. I awoke every morning to the crow of the rooster and to the songs of the morning mass which were always serviced with a very powerful microphone from the local church. To this day, all Filipino hymns are always accompanied by a poultry chorus in my head.

But anyways...

I finished my painting workshop this week, and I am super happy with the result:

For all the memories of all that racket, that is one heck of a nice-looking rooster.  Check out that wattle, hey? And the head comb... quite impressive, I think. 

The paint is called Pebeo, a water based paint which was originally designed to mimic the look of stained glass. On canvas, it has a shiny, glossy look to it, which looks a lot like oil paint when you apply it over the textured paint that I used last week. I knew what the final product was supposed to look like, but I was so surprised when it all came together:

I'm still struggling with my tight muscles. I had a rough week: I spent a day out on a site visit with a lot of walking (i.e. limping and stopping and stretching and wincing), which meant that I had a lot of lost ground to try to get back this weekend. I'm at a full stop with all workouts right now. I think what I need most is rest and more rest.

I slept like a log last night, and woke up and "painted" myself a breakfast of oatmeal, coconut, sliced almonds, and fresh strawberries. It was so pretty that I almost didn't want to eat it:

And then I spent most of the day here on my yoga mat. It started out with lots of foam rolling and stretching, after which I decided that it would be best if I stayed on the floor to help me stretch out my hips:

It was a good place for me to do my calligraphy class homework. This is, by far, the prettiest homework I have ever had to do. I am very happy with this piece. I used some watercolour pencils for the little drawings on it, which I've never really played around with before today:

And also very happy with being able to fit this quote in somewhere:

I have another alphabet that I'm supposed to be practicing, but I'm saving that one until tomorrow to work on because it's more complicated and I think I'll need to sit at the table for that one. It's Victoria Day tomorrow and I have the day off. Queen Victoria would probably frown on me sitting on the floor anyways.

My last class is next Wednesday, and I was so happy to have the excuse to go back to the art store and get more supplies. I get to use WATERCOLOURS next week. I was so excited when I got them home with my new set that I thought I'd whip out a quick painting to share on the blog today...

... except then I remembered that I don't know how to paint with watercolours and I ended up with a piece of soggy paper and nothing more. I guess that's my next class.

It's been so nice to have some new things in my life to look forward to. It has been a good switch for my brain to concentrate on something creative and completely new to me. When I came home from my painting class on Tuesday night, I sat down and looked at my canvas and felt really, really happy... which I realized was a feeling I hadn't truly felt in such a long, long time.

I'm gonna need more of that, I think.

And the knitting... it's coming along, I swear:

It's these dagnabbed bottom-up shawls. They take FOREVER to get through. For. EVER. I keep looking at the pattern to see if I'm getting close to the final stitch count but that's like waiting for the bus in the pouring rain: doesn't 'matter how hard you look for it, it'll come when it comes... and you're just gonna have to tough it out until it does.

As much as I have been enjoying the change with my painting and calligraphy classes, I am looking forward to having my evenings back so I can get on with my knitting. I keep looking over at my forlorn stash and feeling sort of guilty that I haven't been playing with it as much I usually do. There just aren't enough hours in the day to do all the fun things, I guess.

I suppose it would be handy to have a rooster around after all. He could wake me up a bit earlier and give me a few more hours to get stuff done.

Or maybe I've been inhaling too many paint fumes. Heh.

I'm off to knit. Have a lovely week.