It is always a great day when I can carve out time to paint and when that is a whole Saturday I am elated. The first part of the day I was able to bring out the painting of the late afternoon sun that I had started in the spring.

For a number of reasons, most related to being too busy or having priorities determined by other parts of my life, this work has leaned in a corner for most of the summer. I knew it was close to done but there were things that felt awkward in parts of the image and my distractions had made it hard to pinpoint the problems. Yesterday, I had the time to implement the sub processing that had been going on [a large portion of any creative work goes on in the mind without touching the materials] and complete it.

The rest of the day I spent completing a panorama format landscape I started after I got back from a trip to north shore Superior in early August. I had been able to work on the sky in small increments (after work some evenings), but a nice, long stretch made it possible to gain inertia in a way I couldn’t have predicted. The paint just flew and my mind kept pace. It was pure pleasure.

Undivided time to paint for long stretches is such a rare blessing and I am thankful. I look forward to the time in my life when these kinds of days are more the norm and less the exception.

I hope you enjoy seeing the new work. Unfortunately, the little thumbnails I post here or the larger pictures in the galleries, both taken by my phone, cannot do the originals justice.