Return Flight, 48 x 24 inches, oil on linen
I just realized that I need drying time for my paintings before installation, so subtracting a week from the install date, I have only two weeks left to paint! Yikes!! And I still have three blank canvases (and several WIPs). My Gawd, where does the time go!? I knew I shouldn't have taken that vacation in August!
Nowadays, I don't paint much at night anymore because I get up at 5:30am (parent duty) and by dinner time, I'm exhausted. And if I try to paint when my mind is less than optimal, I end up with a sloppy mess of a painting. Well, I don't have that luxury right now, so last night I was up late into the night working on another cheezey motel painting. I must have been gripping my brush too tightly for too long–though I didn't notice it last night– this morning I woke up with one hell of a sore thumb! I can't even lift my coffee cup! Man, I did not bargain for this. Now I have to pump myself up on Advil and keep painting, with less mobility AND a sleep-deprived brain.
Oh, and my painting last night? A sloppy mess. *sigh* I'm going to put it aside for a while and come back to it later to see if I can make something out the mess.
The painting above is one of the pieces in which I am revisiting my old motifs to see how it wold come out differently. Compared to the piece I did some ten years ago, it's quite a bit subtler, the paint handling is more learned, and every stroke is as I intended. The old painting was titled Departure, and it hangs in my living room. This one is Return Flight.
Nowadays, I don't paint much at night anymore because I get up at 5:30am (parent duty) and by dinner time, I'm exhausted. And if I try to paint when my mind is less than optimal, I end up with a sloppy mess of a painting. Well, I don't have that luxury right now, so last night I was up late into the night working on another cheezey motel painting. I must have been gripping my brush too tightly for too long–though I didn't notice it last night– this morning I woke up with one hell of a sore thumb! I can't even lift my coffee cup! Man, I did not bargain for this. Now I have to pump myself up on Advil and keep painting, with less mobility AND a sleep-deprived brain.
Oh, and my painting last night? A sloppy mess. *sigh* I'm going to put it aside for a while and come back to it later to see if I can make something out the mess.
The painting above is one of the pieces in which I am revisiting my old motifs to see how it wold come out differently. Compared to the piece I did some ten years ago, it's quite a bit subtler, the paint handling is more learned, and every stroke is as I intended. The old painting was titled Departure, and it hangs in my living room. This one is Return Flight.
4 comments:
Advil and caffeine, an artists best friends! Good luck preparing for the show, I get stressed just reading your post.
You can allow stress to dominate your live ,or you can just be very happy you got some excellent work done, quality is more important than quantity.
You are f.., king scaring me dude! I'm trying to get 12 to 15 paintings cranked out for Feb. I gotta listen to Mr, Estevez. Anyway, truth be told, this is my first major deal with a great gallery here in Sactown, so I'm happy (with a wee bit of anxiety overlay)!
A certain amount of exhibition deadline stress is very motivating for me. It's doing me good. But if it gets to be too much and painting... and life... starts suffering, that's when I step on the brakes.
I got eight hours of sleep last night, AND I managed to save the sloppy cheezy motel painting (which I will post later) so I'm good!
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