Nov 2, 2022, Wed — I Am On It. I’m going to get this new painting done in four days. Day one was today, which included the composition, mixing the palette and decent progress with first paint. I can already tell, I have it! The motif is unchanging, so successfully figuring out what I did today, well, it’s a matter of continuing this across the canvas.
It looks lovely. Exciting even. I love the colors and it’s of a piece with the painting right before it, which is always fun for me to have kinship with back-to-back paintings. I think it’s fun for Josh, too, my image capture guy. We’ve both noticed how the pieces I bring in seem to have the same color DNA. I ran saliva tests to make sure and it’s not my imagination!
(I think I’m punchy by the time I’m writing this. So don’t mind me.)
Anyway, that’s my big art diary news. I will get the painting finished on time. You might wonder why I need to finish it “on time”. In answer, it’s about the way I work. I work “wet on wet” with lots of texture. So once I’m in the middle of a painting, I need to keep working on it until it’s done. Or else, I run into problems because once things have dried, I’m locked in with those thick textured brushstrokes should I need to make any color adjustments as I go. You can’t really paint over a dried heavily-textured painting. It looks terrible!
Not to mention, my palette dries and I have to remix. And who knows how I mixed those colors? (Just kidding, but not really.) Once I have the palette mixed, it’s gallop time! I cringe to slow down or stop that pony halfway to Dodge City. (Peril on the trail!) Occasionally you can get away with it. For instance in a painting with several distinct aspects, you could complete one or more aspect and then step away, returning to the fresh aspect. I still don’t prefer this, because you might want to adjust something in the margin of the two parts and you won’t be able to. In today’s painting, there’s only one aspect so it would be a total drag to interrupt it. Anything is doable in the case of an emergency, but otherwise, it’s just being hard on myself.
But after today, worry not. I Am On It, as the title says. Make sure to sign up for the Art Giveaway. It’s only three weeks away. And do browse the Lauren Forcella Art-inspired umbrellas. You just might help bring on the rain.
