It’s been a week and I’m just about recovered from Open Studios.  Months of hard work and the two weekends of display left me limp and worn out, and reduced my apartment a dust-rimed wreck. Yesterday I de-cluttered, dusted and vacuumed; wiped down the kitchen cabinets and mopped the floor; then set up my easel, and started painting a portrait in the slow, thoughtful way I prefer to work (rather than slam-painting that I wrote about here.) And in the evening, I watched a movie (a bad one, but hey, two hours of not working!).

I’m still processing Open Studios, and I expect I’ll post more than one blog about the experience. I’ll put it under the category “Silicon Valley Open Studios,” so that it’s easy to find, should you be curious about what I learned.

One thing I can tell you right now: I should have swallowed my initial fear at doing open studios, a fear that paralyzed me. I should have painted more, and painted more sooner. I should have been better prepared. I should have done this, I should have done that.

But as my grandfather used to say, “should-a, would-a, could-a doesn’t get the house built.” I’ll know better next time. And now I’m off to (slowly and thoughtfully) sling around some paint.