Hello my dear friends.  I hope you're enjoying this season that's perfect for drinking hot chocolate and wearing cozy sweaters.

I'm working on my next biggish painting but I've hit the ugly stage...it is so hard to keep going at this middle point.  The colours seem wrong and the composition seems to have altered and not for the best....BUT...I know that this too will pass.  I almost always struggle at the mid point in a painting.  Part of the issue is my own doing. I enjoy the freedom of the beginning stage where I can slap on the paint and not worry too much about the details.  It's a fun and very freeing experience that comes after working long hours doing the detail on my last painting.  It's so much fun that I get a little careless and then when I start pulling the scene together with the bigger objects and coordinating colours...well it can really get ugly.

This is where a pep talk comes in handy.  I have to tell myself to work fast and get it fixed...because it will improve...it will become something I can be proud of.  The self talk works somewhat but I usually end up taking a few days break and often start my next painting.  So that's what I'm doing today.  First the gesso and then the base colour...  That's it.  I won't allow myself to do the fun blocking in until I get the present painting to the stage where I can enjoy looking at it.  We artist types have to work hard at the self discipline stuff.  I can do this...  

How about you?  Do you have to put some extra effort into your project?  How about those New Years resolutions...don't give up...you can do it.

ps. For some reason My Friend follower app at the side has malfunctioned and I have lost about three hundred of my followers.  If you are one of them, please sign in again.  Thanks.