North on Raymond, Oil, 8" x 10" This painting is for sale.
I met my girlfriends at a bar the other night for a birthday celebration and one of my friends commented that I am crazy to have started this blog. "You think you are going to paint a new painting every day?" she asked, "Are you crazy?"
My other girlfriend commented that this is the way I do things and that I get more accomplished than most. I promise you this is not true.
First off, the only reason I started this blog is to make myself paint more. Last year I tried plenty of things ... self imposed deadlines, promising paintings to friends, joining art organizations ... and I still wasn't painting more than two paintings a month. (Did I mention that I still owe a lot of paintings to family and friends?) Now, in all fairness, I should mention that I work full time and have three high school aged boys (and a wonderful husband) who do take up a lot of my time. The secret ... I decided ... is to be so organized that I don't need to waste any more time "thinking about painting" and "getting ready to paint". I realize that I was spending WAY TOO MUCH TIME "thinking about my next painting" and not painting. I know this is just "procrastination" and "lack of organization" but hey, this was my problem.
So, I have this new "craft room" that we just finished in our remodel. It is mostly a place for storage and after single handily buying out the local Container Store, I now have a storage place for everything ... in a mesh drawer ... with a label. Even my palette knives get their own drawer ... and my Viva paper towels ... (a drawer for paper towels?). I have my own desk in an adjacent new room and that is where I paint. My stuff is always out ... somewhat tidy ... and there is no thinking required when it is time to paint. My ipod even sits on the desk ready to blast away my favorite play list that Scott Christensen gave my at his workshop a few years back.
So, am I crazy? Maybe not. It is only mid January and I already decided that I didn't need to post a new painting on Saturday and Sunday ... I guess I am kind of taking the weekends off. Actually that is not true, I am painting on the weekends - this weekend I finished three paintings although the last one didn't turn out and will not be posted on this blog (unless I start a blog titled "Really bad paintings"). I will finish one more today and then pull one out of inventory and viola ... I will have five paintings for this week!
OK, perhaps I am crazy. But no, I do not accomplish more than others. I have just finally figured out how to "just do it". Basically, it is time to be organized. And stop procrastinating. The only scary thing is ... if I paint five paintings a week for the next year, where am I going to store them all? Oh no ...
I met my girlfriends at a bar the other night for a birthday celebration and one of my friends commented that I am crazy to have started this blog. "You think you are going to paint a new painting every day?" she asked, "Are you crazy?"
My other girlfriend commented that this is the way I do things and that I get more accomplished than most. I promise you this is not true.
First off, the only reason I started this blog is to make myself paint more. Last year I tried plenty of things ... self imposed deadlines, promising paintings to friends, joining art organizations ... and I still wasn't painting more than two paintings a month. (Did I mention that I still owe a lot of paintings to family and friends?) Now, in all fairness, I should mention that I work full time and have three high school aged boys (and a wonderful husband) who do take up a lot of my time. The secret ... I decided ... is to be so organized that I don't need to waste any more time "thinking about painting" and "getting ready to paint". I realize that I was spending WAY TOO MUCH TIME "thinking about my next painting" and not painting. I know this is just "procrastination" and "lack of organization" but hey, this was my problem.
So, I have this new "craft room" that we just finished in our remodel. It is mostly a place for storage and after single handily buying out the local Container Store, I now have a storage place for everything ... in a mesh drawer ... with a label. Even my palette knives get their own drawer ... and my Viva paper towels ... (a drawer for paper towels?). I have my own desk in an adjacent new room and that is where I paint. My stuff is always out ... somewhat tidy ... and there is no thinking required when it is time to paint. My ipod even sits on the desk ready to blast away my favorite play list that Scott Christensen gave my at his workshop a few years back.
So, am I crazy? Maybe not. It is only mid January and I already decided that I didn't need to post a new painting on Saturday and Sunday ... I guess I am kind of taking the weekends off. Actually that is not true, I am painting on the weekends - this weekend I finished three paintings although the last one didn't turn out and will not be posted on this blog (unless I start a blog titled "Really bad paintings"). I will finish one more today and then pull one out of inventory and viola ... I will have five paintings for this week!
OK, perhaps I am crazy. But no, I do not accomplish more than others. I have just finally figured out how to "just do it". Basically, it is time to be organized. And stop procrastinating. The only scary thing is ... if I paint five paintings a week for the next year, where am I going to store them all? Oh no ...
5 comments:
Awesome! I love this painting.
Leslie, you inspire me. And I think everything you do is incredible -- but your painting is amazing. Suzanne
I think you've tackled St Andrew's campanile in a beautiful way. It is a difficult subject and you managed to give it a lot of grace. Nice.
Amazing painting truly pricelss
Good for you!! Be crazy, do art daily. I'm trying too. :) P.S. I definitely have a storage problem since I started daily painting.
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