Madi's Moving

The frustration in not getting detail I liked from the lilies I posted in my last blog grew after publishing the post.  Over the years I've wanted to get looser in my strokes only to find that I would always gravitate toward trying to get the detail right.  The day after that post I thought I would try to paint a quick study of my son’s dog Madi.  The goal was loose brush strokes and getting her color right.  As I painted, I became more & more frustrated with the quality of my work.  I decided then that I wanted a good quality painting of Madi....by the end of the month she was going to be moving with the rest of her family to another state.

Madi’s move means that my son, his wife & children are moving.  I've always felt so blessed that my first grandchildren were living in town.  Frequent visits, sleepovers & babysitting were like the perfect drug for alleviating the frustrations I get from my health issues.  It’s going to be hard being in Tucson without all of them.  I will have more time to paint but ...... I would rather they stay. 

Back to the painting....  My tremor isn't that bad on most days.  I do have to wipe away strokes as I go & work a little harder to get them right but I think it will be worth it to keep going with detail until I just don’t want to anymore.  On days that the tremor is bad, I’ll just do something else besides paint. 

It took a week to get Madi’s painting done.  There are a few things I would like to touch up on her but I have to leave it for now.  I was only able to work on it a little at a time because we've been helping get ready for the move.  Brain fatigue happens not just with physical activity but also mental activity.  It can be problem solving, conversing with others or emotional stress (both positive and negative) that leaves people with brain injuries fatigued. The only thing that works once the fatigue sets in is rest.   

This ends the self imposed challenge to do a painting everyday for the month of June.  On Monday we leave to help with the move so I'll be away from my studio for the rest of the month.  I follow a few daily painters & always thought it would be a fun thing to try & it was, but it's not for me.  It leaves little time in a day to work on my larger paintings.

Wishing all of you a Happy 4th & thank you for reading my blog.