Even without the catalogue of mishaps, the canal holiday was disappointing.
We were living in Norwich at the time and Norfolk is well known for its 'Broads', a network of waterways resulting from the digging out peat for fuel in times past. The Norfolk Broads are alive with wildlife - and people; trippers on 'day boats', visitors to the area on guided tour boats, and people who are spending a week afloat, as we were in Burgundy. There are plenty of welcoming pubs along the banks, so there's no need to go off in search of a supermarket, as we had to in Burgundy. And a jolly good time can be had by all!
By comparison, the Burgundy Canal seemed totally dead! Beautiful scenery, row upon row of trees, but very few signs of life. Hardly any other boats and we scarcely saw a duck all week!
We only once found somewhere to eat by the canalbank and I think we must have been the first visitors in a long time as they seemed totally unprepared for us. When the meal finally arrived it was, of course, well worth waiting for and it was during the wait that I took more photos, this one of a pot of geraniums in the evening sun -
This painting, too, surprised me by being accepted for the Bath Summer Exhibition, so I managed to salvage something positive from an otherwise very stressful experience!
4 comments:
Hi, Judy!
These three paintings have beautiful colors. Very impressive. Have fun, not stress!
Cheers, Sadami
Thank you, Sadami - I find painting fun but the rest of the holiday was one stress after another!
First of all, thanks for sharing your very lovely paintings. I appreciate your story about having a "disastrous" trip, especially since it seemed almost to have been designed to bring about such lovely art. A reminder to look for the hidden blessings behind misfortunes or problems. I also appreciated very much your comment that if even one person was moved by, or derived pleasure from a painting then it was a success. I have often thought this, though it was nice to see it in print. Keep up your good work!
Thank you, Betsy. It's only now that I've been able to really see those 'hidden blessings'. At the time, I had nightmares about the locks for weeks after we returned home and I'm not usually a person who even has bad dreams!
And yes, I do believe that looking for sales or critical acclaim can obscure the aim of our art, which I believe is, ideally, simply to make a connection with others.
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