Thursday, March 26, 2015

Day 1 of 500 words a day for 31 days- a cure for perfectionism???

I am taking this seriously - but I have 40 minutes to rattle on and write 500 words before a client arrives to look at paintings.
If my Italian was better then I would know who it was that was going to be arriving and if they had been before... I sometimes think that the reason I find life so exciting in Pisticci is that a lot of the time  I have no idea what is going on. I understand enough to know that there is someone coming  and that they want to look at paintings but I am not so good on the phone  and the rest of the conversation ( other than the time) went over my head. However  this is normal for me.
I used to get very anxious - especially when I understood even less- but most of the time as long as I turned up everything got sorted out.
Being a painter is a pretty good thing when your language skills are a bit lacking . (Not that I haven't tried, really!) But at least a painting is what it is. I know the words for canvas, acrylic and oils etc and portrait and so with a lot of smiling and pointing , generally we reach an understanding.
The only problem I have had twice lately is when I have painted the wrong scene. In future I am going to get the person to show me exactly what ,or which house they want painted. I completely misunderstood someone's directions.
As this is me trying to cure my perfectionism then I am not going to get too precious about what I am writing about - and I think that probably it will be more fun to read if I am  more random. And random is a good word to describe life here.
I have had such a lovely afternoon all by chance....I had just answered the aforementioned phone call in my artist's retreat where I had been  measuring stuff and planning where to put things when I do my big tidy up next week.
I heard some friends outside  and invited them in to see what had been done in the house.
Ten minutes later I was still there, drinking grappa (not mine) and realising that the first and only glass of grappa I had drunk in Italy (home made) was nothing like this and I have been missing out for the last ten years.
This led on to a discussion on houses, prices and life  and coffee next door  served in the most exquisite little cups  and I was having such a good time I was left with only 40 minutes to get this written for today.
I had decided that to do this in a fresh manner -I wanted to write about something that happened or was important to me that day- so I would need to write later in the day - and not first thing in the morning as I have done before. This time of day is usually free so....... see you tomorrow around the same time with more random thoughts in Pisticci.

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