This Year

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Well now, here we are in 2013 (pronounced Twenty-Thirteen) and how does it feel?  I'll tell you in a minute.  To me, it's always a bit of a mind-bender when Next Year becomes This Year.  But I just wanted the year to sink in a little bit before I make any kind of assessment of it.  So far?

Meh.

I made a vow to Re-Use and Recycle more, so my New Year's Resolutions for this year are from 1976.  Couple of things I can cross off that list are, "Get a new Cheryl Tiegs poster", and "Learn to do the Hustle".


Now, a lot of us painters are keen on coming up with resolutions concerning their artwork.  You know, stuff like, "Take more workshops", or "Learn how to [fill in the blank]".  Not me.  I kinda feel I'm already on the road less travelled, and I want to see where it takes me this year.  I believe that staying the course can be more difficult sometimes than making changes.  While my road might have a whole lot of blind curves, I'll spend the year trying not to jump on the highway.


I've been working on a new painting already in this still blossoming year.  Regardless of what I just said about staying the course, I'm using a slightly different technique on this one.  I go on and on in these posts about my glazing technique, but let me clarify something;  To most people, glazing is done after a painting is done, and used to modify form, or highlights-- maybe even change a hue or reduce chroma.  What I do when I glaze is more like a silk screen process.  If I want a green tree, I first slap down some blue.  Over that I glaze a yellow.  Voila-- green.  Then repeat the process over and over to achieve depth.  Yeah, it's as exciting as watching paint dry.  Because mostly it is watching paint dry.  But I like the results.

The picture I'm working on I will glaze in the manner stated earlier;  Paint it, glaze over it.  But I was thinking that it would be fun to change things up a bit.  Let's see if I can explain it:  Wherever I have a passage I'm going to glaze over, I will use the same color, but made with different combinations.  So, for instance, where I have a purple made with a blue and red, I'll use a different blue and red to glaze over it.  See?  Why would I do this?

I dunno.  Seemed like a good idea at the time...

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I remember December 4, 2012 very well.  It was the last day I was healthy.

Since then, I've been living with a sore throat and upper respiratory congestion that eventually got me an ambulance ride after I collapsed and passed out in my studio last week.  And since then I feel like someone has taken a dirty, scratchy gym sock and stuffed it behind my left eye, taken a red hot ember and lodged it in my throat, then crammed a brick into my lungs.  My voice has become a twitching, wheezy lamb-like bleat.  Which isn't so bad, except I have to constantly repeat myself.

• Me: "I am gOing down to The stUDio to work on my pIcture."

          Ellen: "What?"

          Me: "GoinG to worRK.

• Me: "I nEed to juMp on The internet and orDer that KlausSen's Linen at $1,000 a rOll".

          Ellen: "What?"

          Me:  "Nothing..."

 Happy This Year!

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