Love What You Do!

Easier said than done, especially when you draw or paint. Soo, I'm back from hospital and trying to take things easy. I had a lovely chat on my last evening in hospital with a fascinating elderly lady, we got around to the subject of art and she said that as a child she loved drawing, but could never become an artist because she never liked what she produced. At this point I snorted loudly, Bingo! My roommate looked at me amazed, "How can you not like what you paint, they are your pastel paintings!"
That is a good point, they are, but have you ever thought about the term "work of art" or "artwork" ? Indeed, artwork, not "art joy" or a "Joy of Art", that is not to say that I don't enjoy standing at my easel painting, but some paintings are hard work; that vision of how it's supposed to be, just isn't turning out quite as you would like. When you are finished, you always see "mistakes" or areas that you don't like. My greatest compliment to one of my paintings is when I say, "Yip! I'd hang that on my wall"; that's when I love what I've done.

The Ghosts of the Gone

This is the pastel painting started at the same time as "Those Winter Blues". Working on two easels simultaneously was a challenge, I'm not sure it was quite for me! Having said that I really quite liked this more abstract piece. Normally, I would have fiddled on because this is not quite what was planned, but something stopped me. Wall material? Mmmmmm, maybe!