Blog

Often it seems to me that after enjoying a day of good progress in the studio, the following day is a bust. Today was a bust.

Yesterday I made leaps and bounds of progress on a commissioned painting I've been working on for awhile, and reached a point of 99% completion; in a week or so I'll check for any final corrections or touches, then varnish it.

I had so looked forward to continuing my "roll" and to making great progress on another work-in-progress.  This canvas is somewhat dominated by a large gnarly arbutus tree and over the past week I've spent much more time working on the tree than on the rest of the canvas, in fact I never finished evaluating and correcting the rest of the composition. I know better ... This morning I lavished ALL my attention upon that twisty tree and was so enjoying working on it that after hours of happily painting away, I finished that tree down to the last detail. When I finally stepped back to admire my work I realized the overall composition of the painting was waaaaaaay off - UUGH! There's nothing worse than attempting to correct a composition halfway through a painting. The canvas had to be relegated to the back of the non-starters heap to be reviewed/salvaged/painted over at a later date.

Although my enthusiasm was now somewhat deflated, I still had a little oomph left over from yesterday so primed some blank canvases with black gesso. I'm ready for tomorrow's fresh start. Wish me luck and a dash of common sense.

"Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it." ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery