After A Painting Drought

Marian Dioguardi c2014 A warm up preliminary

It happens in a painter's life: a painting drought. It sometimes happens because of outside forces and it sometimes happens because of inside forces. The results are the same; a painter doesn't get to painting for a while.

In this case it's been a month of drought. There was time to prepare and set up for Newton Open Studios, time to breakdown and do the followups from Newton Open Studios. There was time to reunite with an old friend in Florida , time to set up for a dear friend's wedding hosted in my home and time to get sick.

But there wasn't time to paint; until now.

Having eight paintings sell in the course of a month puts a hole in the soul that needs to be filled with new paintings but where to start? What to paint? With so many options how does one choose? And just how rusty are the unused skills? It's good to have a plan, a method for restarting. I start at the beginning. I set up a still life with colors that grab me. Starting with a tiny study ,observational skills get in line. Then onto a fast warm up preliminary without thoughts of composition or drawing accuracy with the goal being to just get the paint and the hand moving around.

It does begin to all come together. "Back in the saddle again.". Doing begets doing and so it goes.