Best of Friends

  

 

Now and then I have the privilege of spending a morning with a dear friend who is a professional full time artist. We have very different styles, different genres and different approaches to painting. This is a celebration for us. We have never allowed ourselves to be competitors, just friends. We have done many residencies and projects together along the way in our careers. 

 We get together and talk shop about our interests, our work schedules, and directions of discovery as painters. She is very sophisticated and a world traveler. I am a country painter. None of our differences matter a bit. We are in sync with our quest for discovery, painting, and love for the natural world. We have watched each other change and grow over the years. We share being a painter in the best way. 

 The thing I like the most about aging as an artist is that I no longer have to be good, or compete as a painter. Painting is so much fun. I never think about bad or good paintings. I just love doing paintings. I’ll never be as good as she or some other painters I know. I no longer see that as a disadvantage. Painting is truly the great equalizer. Someone will be more gifted, or not as gifted. No one will really care, because I don’t. I consider painting to be the great privilege of my life. How could I not like any part of it? Stepping into my studio each time is like going out for a hot fudge sundae! All of the angst of art school, the years of competitive art, galleries and openings, have faded out of my career. Only the joy remains of putting brush to canvas! I vow to keep it that way onward.