"Start"

With this new COVID variant, I’m back to staying home. Not that I ever left. It’s just that for the first time I feel like I’m getting cabin fever. It didn’t help that this week DUMPED rain. Nearly four inches and that was usually with a brisk wind. Indoor, inside, at home. That was me this week. Obviously, my job kept me busy, and I’m working on a rather big project for WSO right now. That left unallocated free time, and there really is only so many episodes of The Great British Bake Off I can watch in a sitting. So, I painted. In the last couple weeks, I’ve finished several important paintings, and I’m not sure what I want to tackle next. So, I decided to jump on the new year resolution band wagon (who cares if I’m late) and work on a personal painting nemesis: my heavy hand.

When I was in high school, I took drafting courses. In my senior year, I competed in a timed competition to follow house specs and draft out the plans for the house and grounds. I got second place. The first-place winner didn’t get quite as far as me, but the judge pointed out his drawings were neater and that mine had a “heavy hand.” This was before the days of AUTOCAD (or actually, just during the early days of it) and so clean drawings were a big deal. I wouldn’t say the experience scarred me, but it’s been something I’ve been uncomfortable with ever since. Whenever I see my pencil strokes on a painting, I wince.

One of the artists I greatly admire is Benedicte Gele. I have two of her originals, and every time I look at them, I am in awe of her confidence. I recently discovered she had a YouTube channel, and I’ve been watching some of her videos in my spare time. This video really spoke to me.

Her drawing is not perfect. And she uses light line AND dark lines.

Mind blown.

So, my resolution is to doodle like Benedicte and learn to love my own marks (LMOM).

I thought the geese turned out well, but I’m not sure I’ll pursue that. But I completely fell in love with the 5th painting, particularly the horse on the right. I’m going to spend some time trying to develop that look into something I could recreate onto a bigger scale.

Finishing a Few Loose Ends

I am not sure where these paintings came from, but I worked on finishing them this week. I might even have started them this week. The details are lost in time, washed away by the many rainstorms of the last week.

“Two Swans” – probably the tail end of my recent swan adventures
“Pronghorn Antelope”
“Pelican Patterns”

We’ll see what happens with all this in the next week!