Catch-Up

I’ve been delinquent………. I had promised myself a post every day. But, it’s not like I’m getting a ton of feedback so I’m going to cut myself some slack! I’ve been in the studio and the paint and ideas were flying. Painting is the key…..not posting! I can always come back to a topic if someone shows some interest. Anyway…. I’ve been working on four new watercolors in addition to the five oils in process as well. This will be a group post and a little discussion on inspiration. I was cleaning out some flat files in the studio and pulled out some old work dating back some four years from my first trip to the Mediterranean. I did some paintings involving Mykanos. I was about to toss two of the old paintings, feeling that my work has progressed a great deal and not wanting to include these paintings in my current inventory. The thing was, the topics/images still intrigued me! So, I pulled the Mykanos digital image files and began leafing through them with a fresh eye for some new paintings. I ended up reworking a picture of bouganvilla by including some figures and now we have a new picture entitled “The Tourists”. I also took an image of a Mykanos porch full of potted plants cropping the earlier effort severely and now have a new painting, “Welcome to Mykanos”. Here are the sketches.  Revisiting earlier material certainly is not a novel idea, its been done by artists forever. But I often hear other artists complain that they do not have anything to paint. If there is one thing I’ve learned its that the more you paint the better you get at it! All those early paintings you struggled with early in your career may be begging to be revisited. After all, you were attracted to something early on. Maybe all you need is to bring your new skills to bear!  

              

Some news to share: Triq Sant Orsla was accepted into the Texas Watercolor Society Show in San Antonio, Texas. Seperated By a Common Language was aceepted into the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies Show in Albuqureque, New Mexico and two paintings, Santorini II and Prickly Pear were accepted into the Richardson Civic Art Society Show in Richardson, Texas. You can check out details on the calendar page of my web site at www.joeblanford .com .