Stick to It

I went outside to paint again this morning. What a beautiful day in the Ozarks! I am so thankful to live here. It is hard to believe it is July. The birds make such a racket, they seem to be enjoying themselves. There's a bluebird that has a nest in a birdhouse close to where I've set up my easel. I've named her Martha. There's also a woodpecker that's been hanging out around the garden. He is a serious percussionist. These guys need to start a band.

Also, thought I set my timer for an hour to paint, and realized I never hit "start" when I checked to see how much time had gone by. Amazingly, I must have known it had been an hour, it was almost exact. I think I did more good things than destructive things to this little still life. I still feel like I could spend another hour defining some of the leaves and working with color relationships.

This is also a new thing I'm trying... Taping a another gessoed paper next to what I'm working on to investigate shapes and colors. This one has turned into a little abstract number that is fun to "switch gears" to when having a blocked moment with the still life. I find that working on two things at once is good for me. I get twice as much accomplished. When I am sick of working on one thing, I switch to the other. The back and forth keeps me from getting bored, or more likely, frustrated.