Gussy Wuss was helping me get my office chores done.
Whenever I slowed down,
he jackhammered my hand,
so I’d move the mouse faster. 
Talk about having a difficult boss.
Daaaang!! 
🤣 😸😛

I’ve kinda always wanted to do a day in a life type post, but I always forget to take a photo of my morning coffee. 🥲 😆 jk I had a long 12 hour day in my studio last week, so I thought I’d share how it went & how much I got accomplished. 

I got all my orders shipped early. It was 11am when I started painting, and I didn’t start cleaning up my art table until 10:45 pm.  

I started with this gouache portrait painting
of a lady wearing her hair in a bun.
I’ll be listing her in my Rescued Series at some point.
You can always contact me if you’re interested.

For some reason, & without giving it any thought, I switched to abstracts as soon as I finished the portrait. I caught myself off guard with that thought because I haven’t painted abstracts in about a billion years. Still, it felt like the right decision in the moment, so I didn’t think about it, and jumped in head first.

And, I immediately started to struggle. 

I like to use palette knives when I paint abstracts, and the gouache in my palette was a bit too watery. I’ve been clinging to my love of gouache now for 2 years or more, but my only choice was to switch to acrylics. My brain instantly rejected the idea, and quickly started listing all the reasons I like gouache better. I reluctantly dug out the acrylics anyway. 

Starting off on the wrong foot didn’t make me feel all that confident, and I let it get to me. By the time I finished the second one, I didn’t want to paint abstracts anymore, but I told myself to give it one more chance.

I can paint portraits any time, day or night, but I have to be in the right mindset to paint abstracts, and I wasn’t there. I was trying to paint from my overthinking head, and it wasn’t working out well. 

I managed to do three abstracts, and these probably took at least 3 hours. It felt like I was rowing upstream in molasses the entire time. I don’t usually like to leave paintings unfinished, but I did. It was time to move on. 

While digging around for the acrylics, I found an unopened package of mixed media paper. I think it came in a set of Kwik paint stix that I was given as a gift a few months ago. The paper weight is only 68 lbs/100 gsm, so I wasn’t sure how it would hold up. I had to find out because I’m nosy. 

Since I already had the acrylic paint out & open, I continued to paint with them, and the paper did surprisingly well. It buckled & curled a little, but not as bad as I expected it to. 

My husband walked in just as I had decided I needed to repaint her mouth. I had painted her mouth gaped open with teeth & tongue showing, and the more I painted, the more it looked like she was in the middle of an angry scream. Obviously, I was still carrying frustration with myself over the abstract paintings, and it was coming out in my portrait. It was time to shake it off, and start over again. So I swirled the wet paint on her mouth around to spread it out, so it would dry as fast as possible. 

My husband looked at the painting and said “is this what you’d call an abstract?” haha! Earlier I had told him I was painting abstracts, so he assumed that’s what I was still doing. I laughed, and said, “No, the abstracts didn’t work out. I’m back to portraits, but I messed up, and need to repaint her mouth.” 

Looks like I need to fix her runny nose,
and chin,
but otherwise it was an easy, quick fix. 
🤣

I was going to keep this book as my new art journal, but since the first page has unhinged itself already, I’m now thinking I might rip them all out, and auction these pages off on eBay. Don’t hold me to that because I’m still thinking about it. I’ll let you know if I do. 

I had left my phone in the other room,
so I was painting without using reference photos.

Girl wearing a sleep mask

I’ve been thinking for weeks that I want to get back into using collage paper in my paintings. Since I’ve been painting mostly on paper and cardboard for the past 4 or 5 years, I hardly ever use collage paper in my work anymore.

When I used to paint on canvas and canvas panels, I used collage all the time because I never liked painting directly on canvas. For years, I either covered the canvas using collage paper or molding/moulding paste if I wanted a smoother surface to paint on. Then I got smarter, and stopped buying canvas, so the issue was resolved. 

This last one is on cardboard,
and I went in with a loaded paint brush
instead of drawing the face first. 
I’ve been doing this more often lately.

 

Even though I don’t feel like I accomplished all that much overall, and I left the abstracts unfinished, I’m happy I gave myself this 12 hour gift of painting. I could have given up after the struggle with the abstracts or when I painted a horrid looking mouth, but I kept painting. At the end of the day, knowing I tried means more to me than the outcome ever does. 

I’m also glad that I dug out the acrylics. I’ve been avoiding them like the plague. Using acrylics again made me realize that they do serve a purpose in my art, at least when it comes to abstracts. And, really..acrylics aren’t so bad to work with, but I still like gouache better. 

I hope you have a lovely weekend. If you get bored, here’s a couple videos & a blog post I highly recommend. 

***

Watching: Speaking your TRUTH when you’re ANGRY at the WORLD 

Reading: Why Keep Going As An Artist – Rafi Perez

“Let’s face it—being an artist is not for the faint of heart. While others might spend their days carefully avoiding rejection and criticism, we dive in headfirst, like daredevils without a parachute. Why? Because creating art isn’t just something we do—it’s who we are. It’s how we breathe, dream, and exist. And with that level of vulnerability comes a unique kind of chaos that only creative humans can understand.”

Well said. Thank you, Rafi. 

You can find available paintings in my shop 
Shipping is FREE
no matter how many you buy. 
You can also find me on
Daily Paintworks, and eBay

Thanks for stopping by.

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