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I haven't had time to paint "just for me" in a while. I'm not complaining, we've been really busy at Carolina Creations all year. And of course we went on vacation for 2 1/2 weeks, the longest ever in 25 years. We've been doing LOTS of custom pottery for people, tiles of landmarks, paintings of homes etc, which I love doing but it's not the same as losing yourself in tubes of paint and a blank canvas.

My friend Sandra has a gallery in Michigan and invited me to participate in a show with the theme of Lake Michigan. I grew up in Michigan and every summer we went on vacations either "Up North", to the UP or to Canada.

As an adult, before Michael and I moved away in 1983 I spent just about every weekend participating in art shows all over the state. Of all the beautiful places in Michigan my most vivid memories are of driving along North Lake Shore Drive as a child. It's a winding, hilly drive along Lake Michigan and through the woods. You peak through the trees at the great expanse of Lake Michigan. I don't ever want to be there in the winter but the summer is glorious.

 
I was just looking for a stone building in Cross Village, I think it's a fence I remember at an intersection we would turn at. I see in my research for this post that there are several stone buildings there.

It wasn't just on vacation that we would explore, my Dad also loved to go for a Sunday drive. I'm sure that is where my love for maps and my wanderlust comes from. I think I've been on every single road in Michigan!

He was never afraid to go down any back road. I can remember going down more than one dirt road, only to have to back out a long way because the road got too narrow and rough to go any further.

So, this is what I love about creating the pieces I make, they almost all have some kind of tie to my past or present, and when creating them I get swept up in the experience.

So when I say painting "just for me", this is what I'm talking about!

Jan Francoeur