OK, back to a normal schedule after last weekend on the Island and the annual Kiegerl Oktoberfest with the whole family here yesterday. 'Normal schedule' feels like a rest.
So, back to painting, and with increasing interest and confidence as I get more regular practice.  Special thanks to Yvonne Reddick for keeping me on track. Besides her phone calls every 2 weeks, she lives rent-free in the back of my mind and reminds me to 'think art' the rest of the time.

So ...

• I am trying to remember the next steps after the grisaille on the 'Storm' painting;
• I have enough dried flowers for one more painting like "Living on the Edge" and I have a frame/support chosen, so I can start anytime;
• A black and white picture is calling me, so I have decided to try a larger version of the rowboats. The 8x10 I painted years ago is still one of my favourites.
  
• Now that it is cool and rainy, I can try palette knife with acrylics again. The extreme heat and zero humidity gave me an exercise in frustration this summer. I found a helpful book in Saskatoon - Palette Knife Painting in Acrylics by Tim Fisher. The section on knife techniques will be useful to practice first instead of doing another 'learn on the job' piece to throw away again.

So nice to have a weekly designated painting day: home alone, the calendar cleared, and studio ready for art making with loads of supplies at the ready. Now, where to start...

• send text to contact re: possible commission to paint "Nicola Lake Sunrise" from his photo
• ​apron on, support and reference ready - "Storm - Nicola Lake"
  • sketched from same-size reference on screen
  • Mussini Transparent Yellow Oxide as toning colour, wiped off for underpainting
  • M.Graham Dioxazine Purple and Titanium White mixed in 5 tones for grisaille
  • Grisaille patches, but blending was a challenge as the paint was drying faster than I expected.
• Done for the day after 4 hours in the studio - I will come back tomorrow and see if it improves with drying. 
• Next - the first colour layer.

Unpainting - as in re-coating paintings that I don't want to work on any more. Back to black or white with gesso or oil primer. I have several old half-finished paintings, some with lovely frames waiting. l decided to stop letting them take up space in my head and in my studio. Some will have a second chance to become masterpieces, others went straight to the garbage can. 
That's what I do when actual painting is not going so well or the day is going to be full of interruptions. Like yesterday.

Possible explanation for the palette knife difficulties - using acrylics (instead of oils) in our hot and super dry weather. The paint was drying too fast to use effectively and accurately. I can test that theory by trying knife painting with oils, since the weather is still very hot and dry.

Two of my current paintings are not going well and both are ones that do not have a proper photo reference, just a mental concept: the Monarch butterflies and the dock of rowboats at sunset. Maybe my mental pictures are like my mental notes - 'not worth the paper they are not written on.'
Note to self - There must be some good references hiding in those 40,000 photos - find them!

Also I am looking at an older painting that is dreadful, but has a very good photo reference. I can see that at some point I stopped checking the photo and the painting went totally off course. I still love the photo, so should I correct the painting or oil prime the canvas and paint it again?  Painting new is way more fun than fixing mistakes :)
​OK - that canvas is now back to white and I am looking forward to painting that amazing sky and reflection. 

It actually takes a bit of getting used to, being alone at home without a "do everything today list" and no interruptions.
I could just putter around in my studio... Well, today all the finished paintings got varnished and framed or rehung, and their inventory entries updated. Some semi-finished paintings moved back to the studio for reconsideration. Disappointingly, none were better than I remembered but a couple still have potential. Others will be 'back to white (or black)' and get a new life someday.  
​
Oh joy!  A call from someone wanting to buy 2! of my paintings. That covers my latest art supply bills. Obviously (see below) I have enough supplies for my lifetime, mostly sorted and stored in some logical (findable) order. And a nice research area with a selection of my favourite art books and some reference photos...

​My plan for next week's Respite Day might include actually painting!

Horizontal format seemed logical for the rowboats, but not for the sunset. 
Palette knife painting seemed so easy when I had to use my left hand - lower expectations helped. Maybe I just need more practice with my right hand. Or not an instant switch from smooth soft oils to hard edge rough knife painting.
I will give this picture some time to settle, then maybe switch to oil to finish it.  
Possible title: "Good Fishing Tomorrow" referring both to the 'red sky at night, sailors' delight' or 'free beer tomorrow.'

​