Years ago I began work on a concept that I’ve still not entirely finished that took a lot of time and a lot of paint. When I finally committed it to canvas, it was 80 inches wide and required tedious layout work.

This was my attempt to work all the children of one of my daughters into something informal

After I got the most of it painted in, I left the picture alone for over a year before going back to it. By then I’d found ways to improve it that required some ingenuity and more tedium. After hitting it hard for a week or so, I reached another stop point. To celebrate, I energetically painted a brand new little canvas that I’d been preparing for as far back as my Air Force days (when I’d go out at night specifically to figure out how I could paint the grandeur of night air punctuated with street lights).

Great gobs of the richest blues and complimentary hues went straight to canvas followed by a meticulous application of all that I’d learned about the appearance of pretty lights in the night. In this case it was a fun flavor of ‘meticulous’ that showed in the final image, which is one of my favorites.

Pure joy to paint and beautiful on the wall, a night scene

After the tediums from laying out the floors and window panes in the big painting, this was just raw fun and pure joy! I love painting, but some flavors of the rush that comes with creation have their own flavor of delicious : ) This was one of them. Artists candy.

Last week I was engaged in the design of a project that proved overly difficult the way I was approaching it and finally I set it aside and did a sketch purely and only for the fun of it. I didn’t care that it broke no new ground, told no deep story, and was not clever. It was entirely for the fun. I was perfectly content just with a portrait uncluttered by distractions. All the extras that this sketch have were doodles that frame a beautiful young woman in such a way that she keeps the center stage. This was such fun that I happily drew till I dropped. First thing the next morning, I was right back at it. I fiddled around with technique that left it muddled so I know I’ll have to work on her face to restore the softness that the experiment disallowed. There are always adjustments in the first few days.

“Leah L.B. is 13” which was drawn just for the fun of it. And it really was fun!

I work with Leah frequently. She’s my go to model, always willing. Now that the school year is back, she’s fully absorbed in classwork and other responsibilities that keep her schedule full. It’s nice to have this reminder that she’s there.