LIFTING ME HIGHER!

                                  Lifting Me Higher!    Pastel | 6x6

When I was 12, my father was assigned to Switzerland as the Air Attaché to the US Embassy in Berne.  The next 3 years were the most wondrous, exciting time of our four lives! First up, come winter, was (of course!) to learn to ski. So began the sport I have most enjoyed in my life.   I've slowed down now, happy to spend 1-2 days on the slopes a year.  But oh! How the goals of my ski day have changed!  Now, it is to simply to not fall down all day. Gone are the steepest vertical drops I could find, the airborne extasy off the top of the mogul, and  the hair raising stops!   Once, when my pole caught my up-do hair-piece as I sprayed my friends in the lift line,  it separated from my head, leaving a giant hair pie on top of my ski pole!  

This view of the break in the action as one ascends to the next descent, is my favorite time nowadays.

Painting notes: Fisher 400 - a velvety pastel paper made by a bloke in the UK - is a lovely surface. Available through Pro-ArtPanels.com it is geared for the pastelist who craves a soft surface whose tooth will hold the multiple layers. It is easier to be 'impressionistic' on a more textured surface; on this one you have to work harder to make the strokes to achieve an impressionistic effect. The best part of today's painting session was remembering all the great times I've been on that chair lifting me up to my next thrilling descent! Metaphor on life, I'm sure.