I have been painting almost every day this month, and usually for hours at a time, yet I have posted very little. I have at least a half a dozen paintings in various states of completion - left for a variety of reasons. The subject matter is not new, but a continuation of familiar themes - water reflections, palm trees, the landscape and still life. In each case I started with lots of enthusiasm, solid compositional ideas, a sense of what I wanted to do, and a willingness to respond to whatever happened on the canvas. The going was good until it was not. When I reached a point that I thought some out-of-sight-thinking time was necessary I would put the canvas aside, and start another. When I did return to them I tended to over-paint and lose what I had. Some of these paintings have been wiped out and some remain a challenge for another day. All very frustrating to say the least.
How to get unstuck and back in a good painting groove? Trying something different often helps and so a week ago I went to an open life studio session and spent 3 hours drawing the model. And here is what I came home with - essentially blind contour figure drawings using marker on acrylic paper (18" x 24"). I did them on the acrylic paper so that if inspired later at home I could paint them. But how......another creative challenge for another day!
