Out of Shape

I try to paint every day.  Outdoors as much as I can.  Keeps me fresh.  Ends up about 50 - 50.

The last week I haven't picked up a brush.  For me the first thing I lose is the feel of the paint going on.  Then I lose the sense of what is and my sense of what I know (things like the sky is blue, snow is white etc.) takes over.  I knew that shows, delivering paintings, hanging, leaves, grass, eaves troughs and so forth were about to take over.  The usual suspects for the Book of Excuses.  Then I get a sense that unless I can dedicate a good block of morning time, I can't get started.  However, I have found that keeping my head in the game helps a lot.  I have stretched canvases, prepared canvases and boards, sketched some variations of some ideas, talked to some artists, read some blogs, and bought a few tubes of paint.  Like I needed them!

Through all of this the feeling of needing to paint big has emerged again.  I seem to go in cycles.  To do this I'll switch to the old french easel for outside (16x20 to 24x30 usually) and use the large canvases I have stretched and prepared for the studio easels.  I guess this is all in preparation for the winter painting season - but this week it is seriously warm.  So we have made preparations to attack Bob's barn on Friday.  It has taken 2 years to get Bob ready for this.  Should be fun.  And this afternoon I'll get on the easel for a few hours.

Bob's Barn, Summer 2009

The old girl has changed a lot since then.  Last fall a western blew off most of her one wall.  Today she is so adorned with character it makes for a difficult painting.