The hiatus being finally over, I have taken up another challenge. This time it’s the 30 in 30 Challenge, that is 30 paintings in 30 days, the inspiration of Leslie Saeta over on her blog Slices of Life.
I know, it’s been some time since I’ve been here, and yes there was all sorts of things going on. Plenty of distractions for me to lose myself in.
You will hear about it in due time, my friends. In due time.
Until then I will leave you with my first entry in this latest painting foray. Needless to say I am already late with the goods.
Developing a new website is a big deal. If this WordPress thing doesn’t kill me now, nothing will. And for that I’ll be grateful. In the midst of my mess here, figuratively and physically, painting happened. Imagine that? Actual work took place at my studio table. A day of productivity is a welcome thing. Needed, and necessary.
Putting aside resistance, trying to keep myself in the now instead of thinking about what I should’ve done, and what I could do tomorrow, the moment came. I grabbed it with both hands. The paints were available. The watercolor block was on my table. Photos I took in the fall were strewn across my table too. All I needed was to feel a pull toward one of them. Motivation is such a difficult thing to capture and the brain is a strange friend.
My brain talks way too much, and says things to me that I wouldn’t say to my worst enemies. Why do we do that to ourselves? The brain goes on and on about hurtful thoughts, talking such trash. And we listen to it, ingest and digest it, and spit it back out by doing absolutely nothing.
Someone come and kick it out! Guess what? That someone has to be one’s self. Get with the program, already!
Enough with the trash talk, let’s get to the art.
The first step of new workç
In the next photo you can see how I started adding shadow and trying to define the areas. The last photo is the second day of working on this watercolor painting and it’s starting to look like something I could be pleased with.
You may or may not remember, but it’s the process that is really the focus. Kicking out Mr. Resistance is part of the gig. Returning to the painting is the second part. Resistance has to be toppled to make time for the work. But, and the but is a big one, then I have to get back to work. It’s such a long story.
Adding color and shadowContinuing with more detail
While I navigate this new website stuff, I have been working. Very hard work, I might add. As I type this, I am trying to figure out how to enlarge the type in the body of my post. Oh joy! Meanwhile, yes, working as I hold off Mr. Resistance, my old buddy, my pal!
Finished products are amazing things, let me tell you. Some how the work gets done as I am in that hazy fog of creativity. Then I blink and Voila! finished products. It’s hard to explain, but, there you have it.
Two finished paintings, another started, and two finished jewelry pieces are the result of that working haze. You already saw the finally finished work in a previous post. The second piece is a smaller work I started and finished immediately before I moved onto the painting I was avoiding. It helped to have one work done to spur me on.
This little watercolor painting was done in twenty minutes from a photo I took of my granddaughter at my favorite beach, Pt. Lookout, NY, on a warm September day. It’s been sitting on my art table for a while and just pulled me in. The vulnerable quality of the pose, a view of the back of her head, is so lovely.
It was the right work to do at the right moment, to help push resistance aside and get to work.
