Make progress with your painting

This is a photo of a back water on the Metolius river. I liked the bright green color.

I'm leaving for a trip in less than four weeks and I've been walking every other morning for about 45 minutes. Now I've bumped it up to everyday if it isn't pouring rain. I find I need to lay out my clothes the night before and get out the door as quickly as possible. If I wait for later in the day it just will not happen. So I'm walking in the dark for a while and I'm not thinking, I'm just putting one foot in front of the other and before long I'm back home again.

I read an article about doing something like this for painting. Don't stop painting even for a short time. So I won't tell you any more about the article by Keith Bond when he says it so well in his post on Fine Arts View.

Currently in the studio

Today is nice rainy day and a good day to work on my three current paintings in progress. I have a 36x36 commission, a 24x24 experiment and a gilded 36x36 piece to work on back and forth. Totally different color palettes. Just the way I like to work. While one dries there is always another one to work on since I tend to work in multiple layers. Trying to push a painting before it's dry is a big mistake. Why this has taken me so long to learn I'll never understand.

Here's blog I subscribe to by Tony Moffitt. His latest one titled "Position, position, position" is very thought provoking. Are galleries disappearing quickly? Some in our local area have changed or closed but I don't think they will ever go away. Or at least I sure hope not! So his cautionary post about positioning yourself in a world without galleries is timely and thought provoking if nothing else.

Travels and sketching

I just returned from trip to Black Butte Ranch near Sisters Oregon. Several artists stayed at the home of one of our fellow artists.

The weather was perfect. The surrounding mountains were beautiful. What a perfect place to sketch. I don't have pictures of the sketches but I will post some photos.

The community where we stayed is very well kept and has two golf courses. The house we stayed in was on a golf course and we had fun watching the golfers play and look around for lost balls. There are many miles of bike paths and most of us did a fair amount of walking.

We also took a walk along the Metolius river and spent time checking out the stores is Sisters.

In case I ever forget what a wonderfully varied place Oregon is I just need to head east over the mountains or west to the coast. What a great place to live. But don't tell anyone. Oh, the secrets out already?