"The Flow" is that intense state one attains when the artist and piece of art are "inter meshed"... and the artist really is unaware of the passage of time, surroundings or any other needs.It is a fairly pleasant state usually, despite the intensity of thoughts and actions and can last hours at a time for "Me".
Not surprisingly however, it often is disrupted prematurely... out of sheer necessity... by outside influences such as other family members, call to meals or in my case the actual preparation of meals-"I" am the cook of the household (by choice)... while my wife carries out cleaning duties. We both feel that this a fair arrangement... but we occasionally help the other with their "assignment/choice".
I try to prepare meals early in the day... just so I can sustain this productive period for a longer duration of time.I often return to the easel after evening meal, but find that even the smallest of time away from the work creates a "block"... and it is difficult to get the "feel of the paint" and the mood... from where I left off. We are indeed strange creatures of habit and ritual worship!
During this next session, I was able to rework the background areas to near completion... with some possible tonal adjustments and edge refining at the concluding session later. I then moved along the left hand fence line to define what was happening up to the foreground.
Finally... I decided that it was necessary for me to now direct my attention to the foreground rock fence... simply establishing individual rocks in very washy colour to at least offset the stark difference between the fore and middle ground areas.I then added a few foliage details be hing the rock mass to indicate possible directions across the entire rock mass.
I discovered... to my chagrin.. that the upper left sky area is not drying as quickly as usual. I used an older half tube of "Soft Mixing Formula" titanium white because I ran out of my usual fast-drying alkyd white. All of the linseed oil has leached into the mouth of the tube. Besides causing a mess to clean up on my palette... it has provided a runnier, much oilier and much slower drying version of the usual pigment.
I decided to not push forward using this problem-causing white. I added some gel medium to the white and simply created a "grisaille" rendering of each rock... hoping that it will dry up overnight.
I have to wait it out... or scrape and start over. Liking the existing sky... I have elected to raise the heat in the studio.. and patiently wait overnight and see what the morning brings. Be back to you... hoefully tomorrow... when the paint's dry!!!
Good painting!
Bruce
