Taking a break

I should be working tonight. I've been torturing myself looking at wonderful painters who produce one small painting a day -- many of them astoundingly good. Rats. I take a long time to do most paintings. When I see these blogs though I am so impressed. I think the concept works like the Skip Lawrence, or Bob Burridge idea of starting each day with a series of small paintings as a warm up. Every time I try that I find myself one week later still trying to finish up one of the nine paintings I began a week ago. But it's also clear that the daily discipline keeps
a painter fluent because of the need to work hard consistently.

I have a lot of work to repair, finish, just bring up to scratch for
my own satisfaction. But Steven and I have a tradition of going out
to the movies most Saturday evenings and I really want to watch
a TV film with him as a second best alternative.

Sometimes life wins out over art. The truth -- everything an artist
looks at "could be" art -- and that's both the joy and frustration of
the job. Did I say job? Forgive me. Painting is a job; I'm happy to
say it's mine. This little painting sold right away. I painted it
from a photo image I took of one of my models relaxing between
her timed poses. It was done in acrylic on watercolour paper, then
glazed with shiny gel medium. The resulting photo record taught
me to photograph my work before I glaze it.

Have a night off -- enjoy yourself!