100 days

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April 10 came and went, and I didn't realize I hit 100 days this year for my daily painting practice. And for another daily too: meditation. It is a cause for celebration! I feel that I have gotten better and more confident with this constant practice of watercolor. Admittedly, sometimes I stress about the painting that hasn't yet happened in the day - and it is not something that should be stressful. But I accept that I am still in the range of not always wanting to paint, but desperately needing to check the Daily Painting box. That's okay. I will allow myself that feeling - and also accept that there is no easy way to make a habit other than to DO IT.
This is one of those days where I didn't feel like painting, but had to do a quick one to check that dreaded box. No, it's not that terrible! I do feel that if I paint early in the day, the fact that I am done makes me happy and it doesn't hang over my head that I still need to paint late into the evening when I am tired and lack inspiration and patience. A few years ago, when I was trying to set a daily meditation habit, I had the same struggle. I needed constancy of time and constancy of space - typically I would easily achieve the latter, but not the former. My meditation time would be all over the day, and the more day that passed, the more I felt I still needed to get that in. It got exponentially worse as I went through the day. It took a couple of years for both time and space to become constants, and they ultimately did. Watercolor will find that comfortable place to settle as well. It is still looking...
This is from a photo in Yuko Nagayama's book. It was part of a demo, but I wanted to see what I could make of the photo, so didn't follow her demo. I did like reading the many references to Japanese culture that she made in her book - as analogies to watercolor - like not painting a shadow with the object is like offering your guests a seat when they're about to leave.


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