The studio warms up as the morning progresses. I keep the windows closed so that the heated air from outside stays outside, and have all the fans running. Being on the north side of the building, I don't have the sun coming in the windows, so I can last until about 2 or 3 pm before I am too hot, too sweaty, to move at all.
These days of summer, I work my way through a palette worth of paint at most. Sometimes I even leave paint on the palette and cover it with plastic wrap for tomorrow. Using up paint and running out of iPod battery power - these are indications that it is time to leave.
Lately, I have once again been struggling with what to paint. I am not in a block, but am not red-hot either.
I start my studio time by studying the photos I am interested in using as inspiration.
Sometimes - rarely - one will leap out and onto the canvas almost despite me.
Most of the time I shuffle through the sheets of paper, looking, feeling, trying to picture it. Then I settle on something and go to work.
Once I've begun, if it is going to work, I will fall into my working mode - singing (under my breath fortunately for anyone nearby!) and moving back and forth between the canvas and the palette and the photo and the stream of air from the fan.
Until the paint is gone or the painting is done or the heat has become too much to bear.
In any case, some new results from the past month's worth of work since my last entry:
Farmer's Market Bounty I, II, and III
Morning Paper - final version
Antique American Landscape
Barefoot Picnic
Perched Above the Flood
