Finally painting again!

It felt so good to stand in front of the canvas and apply paint to it again today!  The last week I'd been tutoring in the studio, so I had my canvases put away so as not to distract my teenage students!  As soon as the final student left, I pulled out my current piece and put it up on the easel where it rested patiently until I finally came back to her today.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I was planning to paint right away this morning but ended up having to take my son to work because his car couldn't make it through the icy snow up to the top of our hill.  Then, while I was out, it seemed like a good idea to go Christmas shopping and see if I could finish getting everything I needed for that.  By the time I got home, I was definitely what could be qualified as pissy.  Thankfully my son called to say he didn't need me to pick him up until a little bit later, so I came out here to paint until I had to go pick him up.  I made great inroads in 2 hours.  After dinner I returned to paint somemore.  Three hours later, I'm feeling like I can't do much more today.  I'll wait until tomorrow to mix up some paint for the background and re-paint it.  That will give me a chance to refine and correct the outlines where they're off. 

Today I worked on her face a lot.  The hardest part was giving the illusion of shadows of hairs over her face.  I also worked on the elbow again.   Elbows and knees are remarkably complex!  I'm finding that bellies and breasts are the easiest to paint.  But it's all interesting and challenging and fun.  When I get a certain part just right, I can feel it in my gut:  I'll be ready to apply paint to a certain area, I'll look at it, then at the photo, then I'll just know it doesn't need any more paint - it's exactly right.  It's a very good feeling! 

I'll see how it looks tomorrow when I can see it in daylight and after a night's rest - I can often see things that need fixing when I've been away from them for the night.

Tomorrow is the memorial service for the woman who died last week.  I look forward to honoring her soul.  Such a wonderful woman!

Tomorrow is also when my daughter gets home from college for a couple of weeks.  Very wonderful!  I love hanging out with her and getting a real sense of how she's doing.  Phone calls just aren't the same!  Especially on cell phones that cut off too often!