The home stretch

I started a large painting this week that is going to be sort of my "grand finale" of this shoemaker series. A while ago my friend Steve, who is not only a great painter, but stretches a mean canvas, gave me a big canvas and it was such a thing of beauty in it's own right that I felt I had to do a few dozen paintings to warm up until I could dare put a mark on it's perfect surface.

But I took the plunge, in charcoal only so far, and I expect I'll be working on it from now until November. Now I think I have all the paintings for my show at least in progress, although I wouldn't mind banging out a few more small ones before then, -- we'll see.



I did get in some good studio time this week, and I think I'm still feeling the benefits of getting away from this series for a couple of weeks. I'm finding I'm making bigger decisions instead of fussing over small details. Summer has kicked into gear though, and again I'm facing the dilemma of wanting to enjoy the weather, work in my garden, and accept all invitations that come my way....and wondering why I didn't work harder in January and February so I could kick back a bit in this beautiful weather!