Progress is not linear, and some days that is more evident than others.

Yesterday, I had two art experiences. First, I listened to Renee Kahn through a presentation by the ISEA, which was excellent and gave me a lot to think about. Second, I started on the second demo of the Lesley Humprey series, which was on charcoal and gouache. While I have some charcoal around, I did not have powdered charcoal. As such, in the end I watch the tutorial intently, but did not do it. I’d really like to try them someday, though.

Additionally, I decided to paint over the day 1 exercise. It was fun, but it wasn’t good enough for such a big panel. I started over.

Today was “oil” day, and this was the first day Lesley went into details about horse anatomy. Sometimes, when taking a horse class, I get frustrated with this, but her explanations were relevant and useful. I used my own reference photo and followed along.

Working on form (form shadow)

Working on cracks and crevices.

Working on light platforms and kind of lost it. I’ll continue tomorrow.

Compared to some workshops I have taken, my pace is slow for this one. First of all, I’m unfamiliar with the mediums and she is encouraging us to work large. But second, I’m relaxing. The last three days I have slept around 12 hours each night. I find it amazing that I’m just so tired. I’ve also been taking the dog for 5-6 walks and then blocking out my evenings for reading.

I’m not a great “processor”. I often find myself months behind in reacting to events. That’s catching up to me, and while I’m painting, I can tune it all out. Then when I take a break to walk the dog, it’s a time where I can say, “hmmm, there’s an emotion.” That’s pretty hard work for me, and its especially hard when I’ve had to acknowledge some anger toward several people in my life. A few deserve it, and I need to talk to them about boundaries. But more have been hit with my expectations, and it’s not their fault that I had a fantasy about how things would work. So, I’m spending my time confronting that and evaluating some different reactions and resolutions.

I’m tired just talking about it!

Tomorrow is day 4, but I may take a break. A friend is schedule to come over, and I still have the gesso panel and today’s oil panel to work on. We’ll see how it goes. I may wait until Sunday (gasp) or even next weekend to finish!