Building Light

Today, I was a little late into the studio. I came in around 9 am and treated myself to lunch with a long time friend at around noon. I had to ship a painting to the Rockies West National Watercolor Show in Grand Junction, CO, so I didn't really get much done today. Sometimes, I end up making several deliveries a week, not leaving much time to paint. This is so frustrating and can really confuse my creative process.

I spent today and last night working on two drawings of interior scenes, which I'm pretty excited to begin working on. I finally finished the drawings and began the painting. I hope to get two more paintings done by the end of next week...maybe.

I also worked on another painting that's almost complete. It isn't quite where I want it to be, so I stretched the paper (again), masked out the whites, re-wet the surface, and poured paint on top of the entire thing. I think I may like it now. Sometimes, it takes weeks or months to evaluate a painting, before I figure out the next step to completion....it's almost like a mathematical problem and there seem to be many ways to figure out these conundrums....

Yin and Yang

I'm trying to rest more, laugh more and play more, in order to replenish my yin, as advised. It's difficult for me to slow down, though, because I find real joy in multi tasking, organizing and pushing ahead to reach my goals.

I am finding, however, that my creativity is soaring. As a result of slowing down just a little, ideas are pouring out of my head. I now have three paintings going in the studio.

I'm teaching my weekly students how to paint fabrics, and in searching for subject material, I've begun to look through some of the items that I've been saving through the decades. The picture here is "Things I Don't Use Anymore," and it's in the beginning stages. I'm spending most of my time building glazes that glow in the shadows and creases. I won't even begin defining the lace until towards the end of creating this painting.