Monday

Ugh, Mondays are so hard to get started on. I have no excuses. It's been a quiet day, though quite dreary. I feel like I'm just a few hours away from finishing my Alps picture, then I'll be moving on to something new. Not sure what it'll be yet, but I'm looking forward to the change. In the meantime, I'm hoping my desire to work will kick in and I'll get this finished.

I'm struggling today. It's dreary outside and hard to see my painting...therefore it's hard to work on it. I'm working though. I'm hoping this one will be done in a few days...less if possible. I ready Stephen King's book on writing and one of the things that he said in there was that he refuses to show his work to anyone until after the second draft. I think there's wisdom in that. I've shown my paintings to people before they're done and the reaction is typically, "Um, nice." So, I think I'll keep my paintings largely to myself (as much as is possible in a household of 5) until they're finished. Maybe I can get my mom to send me a picture of the painting that I sent her for Mother's Day though. That is one of the three that I've finished thus far. Yeesh, 40 seems like an impossible amount. I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...

Making myself go

Well, I'm on the downward spiral to my 40th birthday. As many people know, hitting 40 can really hurt. You tend to look at where you are and say, "What the hell happened?" Well, 7 months from now, I don't want to feel quite that way, so I'm setting a goal for myself that I'd hoped to accomplish in my 20s...I want to have enough paintings done to be able to have my art displayed in a gallery. Why are you putting this in a blog, you say. Let's keep it short and sweet: I'm lazy. I have good intentions but am easily distracted, so I'm hoping that having to account for what I'm doing will keep me on track. I have finished two paintings since the beginning of the year and am well into another one, so I'm going to count those as part of my 40. Only 37 1/2 to go. ;) My criteria? Art that I feel good about. It doesn't have to make YOU smile or weep tears of joy. It only has to make me feel like I've accomplished something that I can be proud of. After all, you can't please all of the people all of the time. I'm hoping that I CAN please some of you (and not just you faithful friends and family members) because that's really the point of putting it into a gallery, isn't it? I will post each painting as I finish them and maybe a few in progress. I guess I shouldn't say "painting" because I think that some of the pieces will be in other media. In any case, I hope to finish 40 pieces of art before December 31st...my 40th birthday. Wish me luck!

Here is my first painting that I finished this year. I saw these old ladies sitting on a bench outside of a restaurant near a small town in Germany. What can I say? I fell in love with them. The expressions on their faces and their postures made me want to sneak over and listen to what they were saying. You may not love pictures of old ladies but I hope that you'll want to make up a story in your mind when you see this.