Not there yet but I can see the finish line.

       Here I am actually painting every day now! I think I have made it through a mini-crisis and now have some of my motivation back.  Even working on these wood panels, which I am finding I don't care for that much, is helping to get me out here every day for a few hours. A friend said I should stop working on these if I don't like the surface but I am too far along and it is kind of a challenge. The paint wants to smear more than I like and there is no give under the brush. It just makes placing each stroke fussier and more annoying than I like:-) It is hard to explain, especially to anyone who doesn't paint in oils, but the surface makes a big difference. Of course it does for all mediums, doesn't it...  I am supposing this is a good lesson for me, though, working on something new and that forces me to think past the usual way I do things. At least I think I'll have these finished in time to enter the show in Vancouver, that is if I can bring them around to my high standards! Ha. Sometimes I wonder what that even means. Yet, I know when I look at what I've done if it is working or not. I usually know why too. That ability took a long time to develop. For too many years I worked on things not understanding enough about why they were ok or not ok, which meant making the same mistakes over and over. Anyway, these little guys do seem to be working (!) in spite of my misgivings over the surface the paint is going on and maybe I can now move on to some larger, more significant work again. Michael will be here in six days and he is such a good model I would have to be really out of it not to do something pretty nice with him. 

        I reinforced the cardboard box I had made for him two months ago, but it has actually been holding up well. Thinking about making a vegan lasagna for dinner the day he comes...I can make it ahead of time, along with an apple pie, and just put them in the oven when we're nearly ready to eat. I hope he likes vegetables and can live without cheese all over everything...(that has been a hard one for me, actually, but I am accustomed to doing without now and it's ok).