The Pressure's On

I go to painting studio every Tuesday night at Noel Robbins'. And every month there is a day where I panic because I don't have my next great painting all lined up. It's weird that the wonderful inspirational photos that I've been collecting for the past 3 years are doing nothing for me. I look them over, wander around the house and the yard, go online, look over my daughter's and husband's photos and nothing is singing to me lately. Nothing has sung to me since "Pierre".

But, I have painted something like 7 paintings and all those market bags and Valentines since "Pierre", so I can paint without being deeply moved by my subject. I'm just wishing that I could go back to that feeling that *this is it* when I see a photo. I've had three paintings that hit me that way: "Mining Ruin", "Canyon Waterfall", and "Pierre et Ballon de Football".

The closest I have come, is the "Thrill Before The Storm", but that one was rife with problems, decisions that had to be changed, issues with using a published photograph. All that kind of spoiled the joy of getting to do that painting.

I guess what I'm looking for is some joy. This amaryllis comes close. It's only 9x12, and hard as hell to use a palette knife on. So...I'm thinking that, if I can't get behind one of the inspiration photos I'm taking to studio tonight, I might just do this amaryllis on a larger canvas. And, no, that's not an original idea with me.

I'm skimming my new book, "I'd Rather Be In The Studio" by Alyson B. Stanfield and she quotes an artist who says that he paints small paintings to give away and a larger version to sell. Another take on that idea is what I came up with on my own: paint one that you think your commissioner would like and another one that is all your own style. Both ideas have a lot of merit and will leave you with a piece that you can sell in the end.

I've taken a photograph of my progress on the Amaryllis and am nearing the end. A few tweaks and I'll sign it and varnish it. Hopefully, I can get to it tomorrow and it'll be dry enough to varnish and give to my friend on Thursday because I just realized that she does volunteer work on Fridays and won't be at Jazzercise. Ah well. There's always next week.