July 02, 2012

The Night.

I've been working on my website for 1000 days so far.

No, but I haven't left the computer for several days now.

The nights have been gorgeous here and last night I swore I would paint the night this evening. I took the dog for a walk and it was late and since I've been at the computer all day I was going to bail because I didn't feel like dragging my supplies outside at 9:30 pm and setting up shop. I'm still in my running clothes from this morning. Yes, I worked at the computer all day wearing my sweaty running clothes. So in order not to bail on my commitment to paint the night, I stood outside and attempted to memorize the evening. Then I opened the garage door for reference and pushed some paint around for maybe 10 minutes. (Maybe longer, but my point is that I picked up the paintbrush. A better point of course might have been that I picked up the paintbrush and finished a painting in one session, but that was not in the cards tonight.)

This is the beginning of a night painting.

6 comments:

Carla said...

Yep. It's amazing what can happen when you just pick up a paintbrush, even if you aren't planning a full day, full session.

Elaine Mari said...

It's been two days since I tried and failed to pick up a paint brush. But your effort was well rewarded. So, I am encouraged to not despair that tomorrow will be the day to start the think I've been prepping to start.

Nice start;)

Elaine Mari said...

The thing, not the think, lately I am making so many typos.

M.A.H. said...

I should have left it alone. I worked on it today and lost it. I'll try and find it again tonight.

My new rule is going to be expediency. I'm tired of overworking the paintings.

Elaine Mari said...

I think it's worth a try, the expediency thing. I find that if I am forced to do a painting in one session (mostly when I am outside) and set it aside for a few days, where I see it in passing, when I get back to it I can usually see if it is salvageable and what I might have to do to salvage it. If it's a lot I toss it and if it is just a little punching up I do it and let it go. Often some of the best things come out of that.

It is harder to do that when I'm working in the studio for instance.

M.A.H. said...

I guess it's not really a new rule, but an old rule I'm going to trot out again.

I've done alla prima before and I Iike working that way a lot. It's just that after X amount of years of caking on the paint for days and weeks at a times, I feel guilty that I completed something in one session.
I also sometimes worry I would run out of materials at the rate I work, but maybe it's time for a shift. I'm ready to embrace half-ass again. ; )

It's over.

Nov 7, 2020. Tears of joy and relief. It's been unreal and I'm ready to get back to a sense of normalcy. The desert has been tough.