I’m a lucky guy.  My day job allows me to be a little flexible with my hours and every now and then I get an opportunity where I’ve got a lot of time to myself.  I love being around other people, but I love my solitude even more.

Sometimes.

This week I got one of those chances and hit the studio early, took a break and came back in until very late.  Or early as the case may be.

I used it as a big dose of catch-up time on my current commission batch and as an opportunity to put that aside and do something new.  It’s only the initial application of paint, but I’m feeling like it’s pretty close to what I’m looking for at this stage.  I plan on doing a few more.  It’s a bit of a backlash to all of the fine detail work I’ve been doing on this album cover project ( Archive: Classic Rock ).  I’ve spent so much time with my tiny brushes and my mal stick and my face pressed to the surface that I had to do something big and energetic and maybe a bit sloppy.  And fast… I’ve got an open studio coming up and I need work on the walls.

I think it’s rather meditative as well.  The image came from a late afternoon in March of this year.  I was sitting in my back yard.  It was cool and still.  The sun was setting and I was struggling with a bout of the Winter Blues (our Winter lasted almost to June this year) I looked through the tangle of oak branches to the West and saw the last waves of light pouring through the branches and thought, “Just a little longer…”.  So I’m calling her “Looking Through the Branches Dreaming of Spring”.

It’s the beginning of an idea.  I’m a big fan of beginnings.

Cheers,

R