Focusing on my goal (Giverny) gets me through the day

Note: This is the first post from my 10-day painting adventure in France. I didn’t bring a laptop and attempted to write on my iPhone. As my first try at blogging overseas via mobile device, the post didn’t load properly. But now that I’m home again (today is June 27, 2015), I’m cutting and pasting it into its property place, here in this space:

Well isn’t this an adventure! My post didn’t post. Let’s see if I can upload now, as a comment. By the way, I was in a pretty foul mood when I wrote it. Going 36 hours without sleep will do that to me! But I am well rested this morning and looking forward to the day. Ok. Here’s the post:

Giverny, France — It took nearly 18 hours to get here for my dream painting trip. And like all dreams, this one isn’t quite what I imagined…but still worth the effort.

The eight-hour coach flight to Paris left me beat. Unfortunately, there was more exhaustion ahead. It took another few hours at the Charles de Gaulle airport for all the painters on this trip to arrive. Then we loaded onto a bus bound for Giverny.

The reality of traveling all day made me cranky. In looking at our itinerary again, it finally sunk in that this 10-day vacation actually involves three days lost to traveling. We have to get here, get from Giverny to Honfleur and then, get back home.

So with only one full week of painting, I changed my attitude. Today was a good day for getting acquainted with my new colleagues and settle in.

And since I was itching to draw, I doodled on the bus. As we passed through a little town, I clicked open the Sketches app on my iPhone and voila! With my index finger serving as pencil and paintbrush, I had a chance to play with digital art.

I feel like I’m getting to know this app. Today, I figured out how to adjust the colors and draw on multiple layers that are like transparent pages that stack together.

By late afternoon, i was finally delivered to my little attic room in a small hotel on Rue de Claude Monet. This winding street is a French fantasy filled with art galleries, cafes, lush greenery and beautiful flowers.

Now that I’ve had a nice dinner in the neighborhood, it’s time to get some sleep! Tomorrow will bring a full day of painting. I wonder what the day will bring.