The Blast, as we affectionately refer to our Jayco Greyhawk Prestige 31FP, is under a cover which is under a decent amount of snow as I write this. However, in a few weeks, the cover comes off and we’ll be heading to Florida to get out of the Mid-Michigan winter gloom.

What I didn’t know prior to moving to Michigan over 20 years ago was that the Lansing, MI area receives the least amount of sunlight in the entire state of Michigan. This is the place of my husband’s birth and after serving over 32 years in the Army he wanted to come home. I of course, followed.

Had I known the almost zero sun deal, our pick of this particular area would not have been met with quite the initial enthusiastic welcome I gave it. I love the sun. I can handle snow and even frigid temps, but I pretty much require sun.

So chase the sun we will, for a mere two weeks during this long dreary winter. I am thankful for our wonderful rig to do just that and am counting the days.

My latest passion is art. I entered the East Lansing Art Festival in 2015 and was selected in the emerging artist category. There were ten of us chosen out of hundreds nation-wide. I was stunned as I had never entered anything before and had just recently gotten into this art-thing. When they handed me my name tag with
”Artist” as the moniker on top of my name, I geeked out.

I haven’t looked back since. I am almost obsessed and this leads to my dilemma when we head to Florida. I paint lately in oils. My preferred genre is landscapes.

In my sticks and bricks home (what RVers, refer to a home that is not on tires) I have an enormous industrial sized stainless sink with special soaps and other equipment I use to clean my brushes and palates.

The tiny RV sink doesn’t lend itself to ease of clean-up and then there’s the problem of me being mega hyper about cleanliness in our Rig.

I’m one of those people who ask that you take your shoes off when you come into The Blast. I sweep and clean the floor daily.

I wipe down every single surface in the kitchen and bath constantly and the commode? I am so bound and determined never to have even a whiff of an odor come from that thing…well let’s just say you could almost use it as a food bowl it is so continuously sanitized.

At home I converted an unfinished part of our basement for my studio where I don’t care if a splash, or a dropped brush happens. I would freak if this happens in the rig.

So don’t paint when I go. Just paint when I come home. Be thankful we have this reservation, made many months in advance. Concentrate on taking beautiful photos that inspire and just enjoy the sun. Even though many landscapes come from my mind some also are inspired from photos so that is an option.

Yep, I could do that.

Don’t wanna.

My desire is to make painting a part of my whole Florida RV vacation resort thing.

I started as a Needle Felt artist. That is what actually gained my entry into the East Lansing Art Festival. It is the art of taking various dyed wool roving and punching it with a specialized needle onto a canvas and making a picture with it. In my case, I made landscapes.

Needle Felting takes many, many hours. Tens of thousands of punch hold into the canvas (or more) and materials are expensive. I longed for a quicker result.

I ventured into watercolor first, then acrylic and landed on oil. There is something about oils that you can not do with any other medium. I’ve tried. I’m sure other greater artists than me can do exactly the same things in acrylic that they can in oils. I can not. And while I do use water soluble oils (oils that can be broken down easier with water, for me, with the focus on easier clean-up), I can not duplicate what I can do with oils with any other paints.

Then I discovered gouache. Pronounced: goo-ash’. It is very similar to acrylics in that it has vibrant colors. It dries quickly and is a very quick clean-up with water. What I do like about gouache is that unlike acrylic when the paint dries on the canvas, if you catch it soon enough, you can still rework it with water. When using acrylics, it dries, it’s done. With gouache I can add a bit of water on the canvas and still blend, fix or change something I have already painted.

Oils take forever to dry and I enjoy wet on wet painting (a technique where you do not wait for the paint to dry yet still add layers), so I am used to taking my time and painting the scene and tweaking it until I feel it is done. I am still limited to some degree with gouache however it is a good second choice to oils for travel.

Then there is the option to En Plein Air which is French meaning, “in the open air”. I not only can paint outdoors but do the same with taking care of the mess afterwards.

With the outdoor shower feature on our RV, I can do that clean-up outside and not be concerned about splashing paint anywhere inside the rig. That outdoor shower feature on you RV isn’t just for getting sand and dirt off of your dog or dirty boots!

I am not going to give up oils. Hardly. However I think this gouache is a good alternative for travel.

Becoming an artist is a very late-in-life thing for me. I had never had any art lessons. My college degree is in UK Literature. I actually knew I had some talent to some degree but never nurtured it because I had zero confidence.

First singing then writing was my passion for decades.

I can not believe how much this wonderful gift has happily consumed me. My joy in giving away my creations is so much more compared to selling them. It is the giving that floats my boat the most. Truly.

We’re fairly new to RVing too. So I have had to navigate many things with new ownership. The latest, how to combine my art passion with my RV passion.

Getting out of the gloomy weather in wintery Michigan with the RV.

Check.

Making advance reservations at a great resort in sunny Florida.

Check.

Figuring out a way to paint and RV at the same time.

Check.

Talk about a happy camper!

Until next time: Duty, Honor and Seeing the Country RV Style!