Dry Spell

Dry Spell
16" x 20"
Oil on Canvas

Woo-Hoo! Finished. I am proud of this one. I like looking at it. There are all kinds of subtle variations in the colors on the boat. They sort of come up in the photo. If you click on the photo, you can see the picture better.

I went back to the photos shadow placement... mostly. I dropped the bottommost shadow down a bit on the right hand side. It was almost parallel to the bottom of the canvas. Yech.

I was madly in love with this painting while working on it last night. I was thinking about keeping it for myself forever and ever. Then I finished it. I still love it. Funny thing though, when something is complete I sort of lose the desire to keep it around. My knitting is usually the same way.

I had a friend a long time ago that made fantastic sculptures out of clay. She kept them all in her living room and priced them so high no one in their right mind would buy them. She told me that she was afraid to let them go because she thought they were the best things she had ever done and ever will do.

Sadly, she seemed to be right. She hadn't made anything that good for a while before I met her, and she didn't produce a thing in the years I knew her.

I think an artist who hoards their own work puts a stop to their own progress. If a person sits and stares at the glories and mistakes made in the past, how can they possibly hope to move foreward?

I don't know if my desire to get rid of completed work is from a desire to move on or a fear of becoming like so many of my fellow artists, hoarding what will inevitably be our "greatest" and only works.

This sucker is going on Etsy.

Check it out! I found the sketch I made on location. A little different view point... Looks rather cartoony, eh?

I really enjoyed that trip. I got to sketch a lot and got a load of reference photos. I am ashamed to remember the meltdown I had two minutes into a rainforesty hike.... The mosqitos were horrid and it was hot and humid.

I hope to behave better next time.