My writing mojo may have settled in for a well-deserved snooze, but it's been a full week! I offer you a rambling list of what I've been up to these first few days of May...

~ Painting, experimenting with a bigger canvas and a fixed colour palette.

~ Watching my peonies grow, listening to the birds sing and catching my first whiff of that sweet spring air that comes with budding leaves and blossoms.

~ Walking through Ottawa's Arts District, enjoying a taste of five different galleries in one evening in the company of like-minded art-lovers. If you live in Ottawa and like art I highly recommend Wellington West's 1st Thursday Art Walk (the link is to a great description on a new-to-me local blog called Visual Encounter).

~ Toying with the idea of a painting experiment involving Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.

~ Looking forward to picking up this piece that's being professionally framed - my first one!

feels like jazz, 16x20 on canvas

~ Working hard at the office to meet a deadline. (We met it!)

~ Mulling over federal election results (and staying up too late doing so), feeling grateful for having the right to vote and living in the country in which I live.

~ Crashing early, curling up on the couch with D. and Cassie, enjoying a few hours of TV escapism.

~ Pondering a theme for the blog this month, but opting to hang back a bit and relax after last month's Matisse Month.

~ Looking forward to TV Ontario's Photography Month and the photography-related documentaries they'll be showing during the next few weeks.

~ Feeling confident about my art one day, questioning it the next.

~ Musing over the past four months and how I've been moving forward without really setting hard, fast goals or knowing where I'm going. Feeling a little disoriented by it, but satisfactorily intrigued enough to continue down that path for now and see where it will lead me.

~ Mentally drafting a blog post on my word for 2011. I know, it's late. But I'm ok with that.