July 26, 2022, Tuesday — Today was Champagne Beach first paint. And it was a great first day of painting. I am kind of dazed and amazed at how much I can paint in a day now. What would have taken me three days before, I can knock out of the park in one. I got all the rocks painting today in the foreground. The upper part of the rocks, anyway, that are free of grasses. Beautiful shades of tawny colors, just delicious.
Tomorrow the goal will be the grasses which are even more in the foreground. I decided to start with the rocks to ground the painting and give the grasses something to come up in front of.
Excited to see if I can stay super loose on the grasses, at the same time using a lot of thick paint. This is a challenging combination of desires. I will hold that thought tomorrow as the feathery grasses sweep upward in front of the rocks, which I will depicted with subliminal hints of color behind. Guess which one?
It’s a deceptively complex painting
OMG, so hot in there today. Today was exactly the situation where I was saying the evaporative method does not work so well. We had high humidity in Redding today, which is a shocker for this time of year. So, getting wet was not that special. Let’s not exaggerate, it still saved the day, and I put in a long one considering the heat. Six straight hours working pretty feverishly. It’s a little disconcerting with every surface super hot to the touch in there. Good thing I’m able to work faster now because the oils are going to dry quickly in this heat. The goal is to finish each section in one day as I love working wet on wet throughout whatever section I’m working on. Wet on wet. Or bust!
It seems doable. As thick as I’m laying the paint down, I should have two days before it gets tacky. So we should be okay even if I have to slow down.
Just looked up the humidity. Wow, it was higher than I realized. The time interval I was there, it was running between 35-50% humidity. Amazing I got so much done. That’s the power of first paint! Champagne Beach first paint, to be exact :). Neither wind nor rain, nor sleet, nor dripping hot humidity will keep me away! So grateful we have gone this long without fire and smoke, which will and does. Praying, praying.
No news on the Enjoy article. I did call them and just waiting for it to be available online. Any day now, they said. While you are waiting, please sign up for my Art Giveaway!
