Painting With Spots!



my aloe vera plant



I started Fall house cleaning a few weeks ago after a hot summer of inertia.  The dust was inches thick, no exaggeration I assure you. Only it wasn't just dust. As I came to realize shorty after, it was the natural habitat of hundreds of nasty minute beasties
. . . dust mites, spiders, and who knows what else. Shortly my stomach was a red mass of itchy bites and blotches that were unbearable. Alas, I took things into my own hands. I decided to cure myself using the lymph from my own aloe vera plant, as always, to heal the bites and soothe the itching. I didn't think that my plant, secular to say the least, would have dust on it too and. of course, the same beasties!

aloe leaf and lymph

The bites on my back healed straight away but the areas where my hands could reach to spead the lymph  got increasingly worse. It was finally a dermatologist who saved me . . .  cortisone pills . . .  antibiotics ( there was an infection in some ) . . .  and a cream to soothe the itch. She explained that it was the hot, dry summer that had created favorable conditions for the multiplication of these pests and living in the country that didn't help. Aloe Vera had never been a CAUSE before. I had always used it with no negative side effects. A lesson for me, though, caution with home remedies in the future. (and less cleaning?)

Despite this uncomfortable situation, as I had promised myself, I've managed to paint a little everyday. When I paint everything else is blotted out, my concentration is complete and my itching stopped momentarily.

I've organized a small area into a studio space here at home. I'm working with waterolor, water based acrylic and collage on paper. All materials easily transferred here from my studio in the city. Not the easiest materials to use but at least, if something goes wrong. . . muddy colors. . . or the composition that just doesn't work, all you do is tear up the paper and start again. I find it's a good way to gain back my confidence and to play with color.





watercolor

natural pigments