30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 20

"Out to Pasture" - acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 20" x 20" x 1.5".  Click here to purchase this piece on Artfinder.

Day twenty has gone to the cows.  I couldn't resist.  One more go at yellow ear tags, contemplative stares and goofy muzzles.  This time a more texturized and impressionistic rendering.  I smile every time I pass by this trio hanging on the wall.

Our house has been construction-central this past week.  The sound of drills, hammers, things falling off the roof (oh yes!) have been the background music to my days.  The mid-point of a six-month process of converting a home to 100% solar energy.  We've got rows of sleek panels on the roof now - George Jetson-like in their modernity.  It is fascinating to watch the face of the panels change as they reflect the sky above.  Now the waiting begins.  Waiting for inspections, waiting for the power company to install our new meter - a meter which runs backwards as we send excess power to the grid to store for future use.  All I want for Christmas is no electric bill.  By golly, I think it might happen by then.

We might be a little over the top in our pursuit of energy efficiency and environmental friendliness.  We are a three Prius household, thrilled with our 45-50 MPG cars and silent idling at stoplights, quietly gliding through neighborhood streets like stealth hippies.  Our hot water has been solar heated for awhile, which helps us cringe less when the kids are all here and the line for the showers goes on for hours. We obsessively recycle, often making food purchases based on the packaging, then feeling quite guilt-ridden when our japanese take-out comes in styrofoam containers.

So the opportunity to harness the sun here in Florida was simply too tantalizing to resist. The sun here is the lure for tourists, retirees and vacationers.  It brings gorgeous sunsets and verdant landscapes, warmth and glowing light.  The thought of capturing a small bit of that brilliant orb and creating power is fascinating.  That, and the bliss of cooling the house to delicious temperatures without sweating over the bills.

There have been many hiccups along the way, likely since the bulk of the construction took place during mercury retrograde.  But the things that fell off the roof weren't human, and the snafus have been corrected. And soon the  new entertainment in our house will be watching our meter run counter-clockwise.