Daily painting #289 9"x12" oil on primed canvas panel
Larger than my normal daily paintings and more of a 'play day' in the studio than actually getting around to any work.....my head space today was just all wrong! I have been really unsettled after returning from my trip to the UK. It was quite an emotional visit having lived there almost 16 years ago and returning again for the first time since, was quite something....! My mum was also at the doctors today and will be admitted back into hospital for tests and possible surgery.....my head space is not quite calm to say the least! So I really didn't feel like doing a daily painting today as a matter of fact I didn't feel like going into my studio at all....most unlike me....so I forced myself to! I decided to work from some photo references rather than setting up something (it felt like too much effort although working from life is always best) and fruit, flowers and still life just had no appeal. So a portrait instead! Only I felt like I needed to struggle a bit today, a bit like forcing yourself to take on a battle so I limited my palette (a lot) worked with mixtures of skin tones I don't normally use and yes....struggled....as you can probably see! Not a master portrait but then I never was going to create a masterpiece today, I simply needed to paint....and contemplate! As a matter of fact if you are a portrait artist looking at this now you will probably cringe for me that I have even bothered to share this....but I paint daily and will share whatever it is I have done....regardless. Sometimes painting has less to do with what it is we paint or how we paint it and more to with what we feel when we paint it....today I am contemplative. And just for the record....I am glad I forced myself into the studio regardless of the outcome. When we resist something it is often what we need the most!
