Does a palette count?

Yesterday my palette was more interesting than the painting I worked on. Sad but true. A painting is simply a series of decisions and I think my third decision was off course. From there, I couldn’t get what I wanted from the painting. It’s hard to figure out what happens in a case like that but I’ve learned from past experience that if I start over and try again, I’ll probably go down the same path. It’s like my thought process has “dug a rut” (how’s that for southern?) and I need to completely leave the idea to get out of it.

Learning to work with wax has taken me back to a lot of the basic lessons of my first years of painting. Actually, the first years of heartbreak! I’m at that point where a couple of pieces are fairly successful followed by one that I simply didn’t ruin followed by one or two that I have to convince myself were worth the time because I learned something! I’m learning so many things at once — choosing appropriate subject matter for the medium, mixing color, controlling the surface and creating texture, etc. Basically, there are multiple things that could go wrong at any moment. It’s called learning. Some days I like it and some days (like yesterday) it’s humbling to the point of painful.

No pain no gain? I HATE that saying! I think I’ll go back and try again today :)