Feeling Rather Embarrassed

For over two years I've had this wonderful website on the Kajabi platform to teach extensive, deep-dive online classes.  It is exactly what I dreamt of being able to do for more than a decade before Kajabi entered onto the scene.  At the same time, I was traveling extensively, fewer days home than I was away ... loving every minute of my adventurous traveling, sketching and exploring in addition to teaching workshops.  Little time was left for me to actually learn how the platform worked, the different elements working together ... or not, being automated ... or not.  For over a year, I was unaware of a link that I hadn't set up properly.  Two days ago, thanks to an artist who notified me to tell me she wasn't getting notified of new blog posts, I investigated the problem and discovered that non of my subscribers have EVER received notification of the new blog posts!  I apologize.  I should, by now, know not to make assumptions.  My assumption was that when someone subscribes to a blog, they are automatically notified of new posts. That's the way that all of my other websites and blogs have worked.  This one, however, is different.  After communicating with the wonderfully patient and knowledgable support staff at Kajabi, I now have it set up so that if you are subscribed you will receive notification via email that a new post is published.  For the past several months I've been posting twice a week, usually (but not always) on Monday and Thursday.

That was not the only bit of chaos thrown into the mix during the last few days.  through it all, I completed the first two, large paintings in the new series of work.  Since both paintings took a very different direction from what I had foreseen, I will put off naming the series until a see at least a dozen completed pieces.  

Blue No. 1

watercolor, acrylic, paper, rag board and string - 60" x 48" 

Red No. 1

watercolor and acrylic on stretched cotton canvas - 32" x 38"

Neither of the two pieces reached the stage of oil glaze layering as I had planned.  Both are layers of watercolor or acrylic on stretched cotton canvas. Blue No. 1 also has elements of collage; paper, rag board and string.

The completion of both paintings resulted from the devastating collapse of a book-burdened shelf in my office while in the midst of re-filming and editing Lesson Four of the most recent Skillshare, online class Painting a Hedgerow in Watercolor.  My Rylo 360 degree camera had produced horrendous pixelation while filming the en plein air painting demo using the DIY body easel I invented for Parapainting while paragliding with my son.

Replacing the unsatisfactory Rylo footage, that didn't appear mutilated until it went through the publishing process on Skillshare, ASAP so that I wouldn't be penalized for the atrocity, I stumbled upon older footage of the evolution of my aerial painting studio. For a break from the stress of occurrences, I pieced the footage back together again, smiling as I reflected on the joy of painting while flying high above the ground. The video showing still images of painting along the street and painting in the air using my second generation aerial studio, a modified sketchbook, is posted above. Video footage of parapainting is published on my youtube channel. Scroll down through the videos and you will see it. Or, contact me and I will send you a direct links to my Adventure Videos.

Parapainting while flying tandem with my son, Michael Vergalla, Dunlap, California

I would like the next few days to be a bit calmer than the last few have been.

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Thinking about taking an online art courses?  I offer bite-sized classes on Skillshare as well as more comprehensive classes here on ExploreWithChrisCarter.com.

If you aren't already a premium member on Skillshare, please check it out.  You receive a two month trial period totally free when you click on my link:  Skillshare.com/chriscarterart

Most popular Skillshare classes are the Pulling the Puddle watercolor technique (Series of four classes) the four-part Color Wheel Mandala class and the new Fun Flexagon class.

Most popular classes here on ExploreWithChrisCarter are The Color Scheme Game, Creating Dala Art and the Drawing Alternative One courses.

Thanks for reading my blog!