PONDERING THE PAINTINGS

I've got a folder (somewhere on my desk) with copies of photos that I might like to paint one day.

Some of these photos are printed 4 or 6 to a page in thumbnail version so that I can keep checking on them and deciding if any are worthy of painting; some I've decided will probably become a painting at some time and so I've printed them 8.5x11.

Of course, when I decide to look through the folder, I usually cannot locate the folder.  (I would put up a photo of my desk but then either I would die of embarrassment or you all would die of shock, so I'm not going to do that!)

Once I do locate the folder and page through, I'm usually very under-whelmed by what I've previously selected to paint, so I go back to the computer to repeat this process.

(Are you beginning to get the "big picture" here?)

It doesn't help when you have a painting failure thrown into this mix.  As you know, a painting failure reflects a monstrous shadow on your soul and you just know you are never going to paint well again.  Ever.  So in order to make sure this occurs you just don't paint.  At all.  For a while.

Then, finally, the encouragement of friends and fellow artists gets the best of you and, once again, you decide that, well, maybe you can paint something.

This usually creates a need to go to your art books and magazines and pull a few off the shelf to thumb through.

Sitting with a cup of coffee and looking at pretty pictures will usually make me feel better.  Then I'll see a painting similar to one I've done (a successful one, that is) and then I begin to think "well, Deb, maybe you can paint . . . ."

With any luck I'll be sufficiently encouraged to . . . check out the folder, go through the computer . . . and start this whole procedure over again.

Such is the life of an "Artiste"!