Daily Painting

One good thing that has come out of this shelter-in-place is that I am walking daily. Previously, my exercise consisted of Body Pump at the gym three times a week. Sometimes I would walk right after, about 2 miles in the park (where I took photos of the man with the dog in the previous post). Once upon a time, a long time ago, I tried walking daily regardless of gym regimen. That didn't last. Now I am walking daily, and lately, have been running and walking in alternate minutes to up the cardio. I find I am not sleeping very well - I am probably not tired enough since I don't have the usual runaround and drive-around that I do back-to-back when I am out and about. Now, I am mostly sitting in the day, aside from the hour of walk-and-run. And I am playing a great deal of online Scrabble - a new vice. I keep taking pictures on my walk of the various flowers I see. Spring is here, and how! Everything is blooming, the sunlight kisses it and creates very paintworthy scenes, so I am...

In this lockdown, I have decided to paint more on my own - be it going out for plein air (harder to do without a companion) or at home (harder to do anyway :-(  ). I cleaned up my desk after my last project and I put my tabletop easel on the wiped-down surface. Now, from across the room, I feel the tidiness invites me - the easel with a blank sheet of watercolor paper, a clean bowl of water, and paints and brushes set up on the right. Now I don't need to set up from scratch and only need to know what to paint. Which isn't always easy. Typically watching YouTube videos of artists I like inspires me to no end. Who better, then, than Charles Reid? My artist teacher-cum-friend Bill Dunn mailed me two DVDs from his personal collection to watch during this quiet time. One of them isn't available in any library, nor through Link+. It is Charles Reid's English Watercolour Sketchbook. I loved watching it, and was inspired to paint like him - alla prima - and not in layers. I ...

Today's morning meditation and, in particular, a couple of lines, struck me: Just as you breathe, and let the breath go, then the next one comes, in, out, let it go, let life's events come and go the same way. Don't hold on, just like you don't hold on to the breath. I don't think about the breaths that have passed, nor do I think about the breaths that will come in an hour. Why, then, do I not paint the same way? I find I focus a lot on the future - specifically getting into big shows - and I paint with that in mind. I also paint bigger with that in mind, and I don't think I am ready to be that big just yet. When I am not thinking of all that, I paint well, instinctively. When all that takes over, my instinct goes for a toss and I paint under various kinds of pressure. If I could just focus on today, this moment, and focus on what there is to learn, what I am lacking in - then I could master that one task at a time, and trickle it to my paintings. When ...