Funny how when the sun comes out everything can magically feel a little better.
(of course, I never underestimate the power of prayers and nice emails, either...thanks :) )
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This week in my painting class I actually painted from a live subject. I usually paint from a book (twisting every step of the way...but I'm not the teacher...), however, this week my teacher let me paint some higanbana, a flower that's blooming now (& the one in the previous post). I'm going to need more practice with this subject, but I thought you might like to see my first attempt. The red thing is my inkan (name seal). I'll photograph that and explain it a little better in another post.

Here's a photo I took of my workspace at my teacher's house. It's a really interesting place. From what I understand, my teacher lives with his parents in one (Japanese style) house, the grandparents are in a separate one on the same property, and then they have this painting building. It looks like they might have a garden on the property, too.
In my workspace you can see my practice paper on a piece of grey felt, my ink well, water (brush rinse), the porcelain container that holds water to add to the ink to get various shades of grey-black, fude (brush - it almost sounds like "who-day"), blotting towel, my subject, higanbana, and, of course, some delicious tea and treats (this week it was homemade veggie tempura) from my teacher's mom.