I love that I had three completely open days to work on the little painting of Sydney, hurricane threat notwithstanding. And here’s the weird thing that happened: painting a happy child in the woods … presumably a lovely, bucolic setting … but I think the energy of the weather …. and a bit of concern for loved ones in harms way … could have led me to paint a scene of underlying menace.
My morning ritual starts with three activities — letting the dog out, starting the coffee, and reviewing the previous day’s work. It’s usually surprising … good and bad … to see yesterday’s decisions after a good night’s sleep. And when I looked at this work in progress, even though there’s still quite a bit to do, I could feel something dark in the woods. Clearly it’s time to take a few days off this one and “turn it to the wall” as my teacher always said. There’s nothing more practical than a fresh perspective when you’re too close to the struggle … give it a few days ‘to the wall’ and bet I’ll see a different painting …. or at least I’ll see a simple way to get it back on track.
