At Sunrise

I shot this at sunrise and the background was very dark—dramatic
photo with brilliant flowers but I had a hard time painting the background
as dark as it was—too much color in the black or the wrong temperature.
I've had to do a lot of trial and error lately with backgrounds to set off
colors in the foreground. It would be so nice to just "know" which value
and temperature would work. The plastic container also looked jet black
but when I mixed an interesting cool black, it looked dead and cold.
It'll be fun to have a few more tries with this and vary the composition
and colors.

In the Window

I paint everyday but not posting it all. I've learned so much from 

observation, but find myself obstinately wanting to over-ride what 

I observe in order to be more creative. My head is filled with so many 

possibilities of what a painting can be it's hard to see what's best to do 

at any given moment. The great thing is that I've become observant of 

everything around me—even when I'm not painting—people, things, 

the way the light falls—it's mesmerizing. 

When I'm painting, I try to be faithful and get it all down and end up 

with "right" but dull so I've changed my routine. I now start a few 

small paintings and a few larger ones so I always have something in 

some state of becoming so I'm not compulsive or desperate to finish 

anything. I'm no longer faced with having "completed" something then 

faced with the blankness of starting something new. My studio is too 

small to keep a lot of set-ups so once I get the bones down, the set-up 

goes down (or it dies or rots). And then I feel free to rely on memory or 

imagination or whatever the surface asks to be. I have 4 or 5 surfaces 

in the wings, so if I reach an impasse on one or lose focus, I can switch, 

hopefully applying something I've learned to another. It's oblique, like 

coming to a solution sideways, and so non-direct, but it aligns with the 

way my brain works. I still have frustrating days but think: so what? 

I'd rather spend my day doing this than anything else.

Big 'Choke

Still painting everyday . . .

Eggs and Glass

I've been spending more time looking at a painting, living with it
for a few days—trying to make decisions more thoughtfully. I painted
the rim of the glass the brown and yellow it was, originally, then
realized that it could be the liveliest part and wake the painting up a bit.