My goodness! I don't know how a month that's only two or three days shorter than the others can feel like a whole week less. I truly can't believe that it's already March. 

This month, I spent a week in Tempe with Aaron and a week hosting my mom here in Arizona. While in Tempe, I visited one of my favorite places in Phoenix, the Desert Botanical Garden. The second piece featured in this blog is from a photo of a cactus I took there.

Mom and I traveled north to see the Grand Canyon in the snow, and it was a delightful (if slightly chilly!) adventure. We saw more "winter" weather in Tucson this month than I've seen since we put down roots in October, with highs dipping to the low-50s at points. February went out in style yesterday with the most snow I've seen yet on the mountains here so far. I couldn't resist slipping away to the Catalina Mountains at the end of the day to see the juxtaposition of saguaro cacti against snow-dusted peaks. 

I have lots of beautiful photos stored up from these excursions, and look forward to bringing them to life on paper or canvas. I'm feeling the pressure to exercise a little more discipline and get cracking. I'm slightly peeved at myself that I only created four paintings this month, although one was a 10x10" commission, which took me quite a bit longer than my usual work due to the size and the pressure associated with it. Commissions are always more time-consuming because I feel the weight of others' expectations, but it's also so much fun to be a part of someone's special gift or moment. So, I put more time in, but I get more from it, too. 

I continue to enjoy the drawing class I'm taking and signed up for a second session. I'm also sharing some of the work I did in class on this blog entry. It's nothing good enough to sell, but I created it, so why not? :-)

The non-commissioned works from this month remain available as of this blog's publish date, so if they tickle (or prickle?) your fancy, head on over and shop now ›

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