The rest will remain a mystery
Revising an oil portrait painting
I’ve been setting up new 2026 folders & spreadsheets on my mac this week. The new year has gotten off to a slow start for me because I’ve been feeling under the weather the past few days. I haven’t had energy to create anything, so instead I looked back through some older folders to see what I was doing in January in years past.
Turns out I was revising this little 4x4 portrait a few Januarys ago, so I thought I’d share. She was one of my very first oil paintings, if I remember correctly, which I painted in 2012ish.
I don’t know what’s become of this painting. It might have sold or it could be in a box in storage somewhere?
When you eat, sleep & breathe art every day, and have painted thousands of paintings, the details of each one tend to get fuzzy over time. Unless I take photos as I go along to document, I can easily forget what I created and when.
It’s kinda like trying to remember every single time you’ve driven a car, and where you went for the past 25 years. It’s impossible.
For now, I’ll have to be content with seeing the photos of this painting once again, and the rest will remain a mystery.
I hope you have a creative new week. I’m gonna go rest up, and hopefully I’ll be back making new paintings soon. I’ll leave you with some links that I hope you enjoy.
Reading:
I’m still trying to slough my way through 418 pages of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. I’m struggling. I wanted to love this book, but if I’m being honest, I don’t even like it. The storyline is super slow, depressing, and boring, imo. It’s time to start speed reading to get through it, and put an end to my misery. I’ve purchased two other books this week, and I’m ready to move on.
Watching:
introvert & dog - “Slow city living in Oslo, Norway with a dog. The world seen through the eyes of an introvert guy. I'm very happy to be ordinary and average. I live with my boyfriend Mr. J. + our wonderful doggy pal Mochi in a small apartment.”
Youtube recommended I watch this channel, and sometimes, although I hate to admit it, the algorithm is spot on. I’ve only watched 3 videos so far, but I look forward to binge watching a few more sometime soon. They remind me of Benjiplant & Chris Middendorf, two of my favorite Youtubers. Chris is actually the reason I wanted to love the book I’m reading — because he highly recommended it on his channel. Sorry, Chris!!
Michaël Borremans: A Knife in the Eye [english subs] - soooo good! I want to watch it again and again.
art journaling with recycled paper by Alisa Burke - I need to do this. I have way too many bits and pieces of paper lying around. Will I do it, tho? Probably not because I’m lazy. lol
My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.
I also just reopened my Etsy shop after an almost 2 year hiatus, if you prefer shopping there.
You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.
I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.
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