Dear book blogging audience, OK, this has nothing to do with books, or maybe it might at some time, but not now. Still, some of you might find it interesting.

I have always been interested in art, although I am not schooled in it. In middle school, my electives were band class and orchestra (flute) until I got braces in 9th grade and ruined my embouchure. I wanted to take art in high school, but I was afraid that all the people who took it through middle school would know more than I did, so I took something else (and I can’t remember what). As an adult, I occasionally took a six-week class, but I never had a lot of time to work on it.

However, once I retired and moved to Washington, I thought that art classes might be a fun thing to do with my sister, who has always been much more persistent in working on art. We both enrolled at an art school in Vancouver, and I have been going there ever since. (My sister dropped out after a couple years.)

Although I never felt very strongly about myself as an artist, just recently things have been opening up for me. I won first place at the county fair (a big $1.50 and a ribbon), I sold a print of that painting, I shared a booth with my sister in the Battle Ground Art Fair this September, and I joined the Battle Ground Art Alliance. In December, an art gallery is opening up in Battle Ground, and one of my paintings will be for sale there.

A discussion with the webmaster for the BGAA’s website about contact information on their page for me (I submitted my email address and he was advising me to use something else) led me to create a blog about art. It isn’t a sale blog, although I may join the blog owned by the BGAA’s website for selling art once I get my act in gear. It will be a weekly blog talking about my experiences in painting and art. It’s called What? Me Paint? Check it out if you’re interested. So far, there is only one post, but you can see photos of two of my paintings.