Having time off work between Christmas and New Year is an incredible blessing to me. To be able to regain the natural response in my painting, I need to have several days to adjust and calm my inter vibrations. My academic work, although fulfilling, does not draw from the same source as my artwork does. As a result, I have to make a concerted effort to relax and paint.
I have been napping, cleaning, eating fun meals, watching TV programs, and enjoying time with my sweetheart. I have also been tinkering, dithering on older pieces, and painting new works.
If you saw the last post of the painting of trees you saw a lovely way to work through rustiness on a new canvas. Today, I have been thinking about friends and family and I tend to paint while I do that. Sometimes I paint from my head, and sometimes I look in a folder I keep on my phone of source images that I have either taken, or seen on friends’ social media sites. This is where the permissions that you, my friends, have given me become so vital to me. When I go to that folder and an image speaks to me, it allows me the freedom to run with it at that moment of inspiration.
Today I have been thinking about friendships and wanted to lift up one family in northern Wisconsin who have been gracious, accepting, and supportive of me and my work. Thank you for the permission to enjoy creating today’s painting, a 5″ x 7″ oil on canvas board – a playful study called “Maggie”.
Kelly E. James 