balance

So, work has been dreadful lately. There's a lot of uncertainty and oppressively bad vibes all over the place. Deadlines. Unbearable stress and a lot of frustration. And the situation with mom has sucked, to say the least (although that seems to be leveling off; today she is at her new home in an assisted living facility in Virginia, near my sister Debi's home).

But, man-- despite all of the weight on my shoulders and challenges I'm coping with-- am I ever painting!! I haven't been this prolific in a long, long time.

This photo is the very start of an interesting little piece I'm doing of John wrapped in a scarf. At this stage it is still very washy and without a lot of depth, but you can at least see the composition and where I'm headed with it. It's small (18 x 18) but it should have a lot of "pow" when I'm finished. I'm in love with painting his ear. And there are some very interesting dramatic shadow patterns and detail near his eye.

Meanwhile, I bought some very sweet portrait-grade linen (can't stop touching it!) and I'm in the process of gessoing it. I'm prepping two canvases (22 x 26 each) that will be the first in the 7th Heaven series. I plan on sketching them out this weekend. I'm still high as a kite about this project. It's going to be SO COOL!

So I guess everything in life is a balance. Bad work. Bad family drama. Good painting. And I did a fast, very satisfying three mile run today. Balance!