A good days work

A good days work, originally uploaded by gilfling.

Hello! I have not had time to post all the stages of this painting so thought I would show a few snippets and then do a summarised post once finished with all the images – possibly a flickr mosaic I think.

This was how it looked last Thursday after a full day in the studio and I was really pleased with the direction it was taking. I love working on all these many layers even knowing that in the end, much of this will be covered up. It is a process – working on the shapes and tones, building it up almost as if I am sculpting. Sometimes when I look back at the process I see elements that I really liked at certain stages but unfortunately they get covered up as the painting develops. But I am learning not to mourn those details and think of them as a loss, but instead to see it is an ongoing process and learning curve so that I can hopefully bring more of those into future work. There will always be other paintings!

Already this year I have painted more than I did in the whole of 2011 and it feels really good. I have been struggling a bit lately with anxiety and stress and being in the studio always makes me feel better. Last year I had to take a break but now I know that it is where I am meant to be – excuse the clichés! It just feels good. I won’t make any apologies for harping on about that! More on this painting tomorrow.

x x x