Jumping Jay - 12 inches by 12 inches

This painting is almost finished. Just a few more touches and it will be done. I thought it would be quick and easy to paint but it turned out to take more time and effort than I thought it would. I never really know how long a painting will take or how smoothly painting it might go. I think my favorite painting to date is the portrait I did of Arvin and that flowed easily and surprised me how quickly it came together. I think it had to do with getting further away from the photo and getting more abstract. The fact that I had used my little RX100 camera and made some painting-like versions of the photo helped too. They began the process of leaving the photo behind. With the jay it was harder for me to let go and relax. We shall see if I can get looser with the next one I paint.

Helena came home with me after open studio and we had a yummy dinner with Arvin. Then we watched "The American President" on DVD. That was my mother's favorite movie and she watched it (and we did too with her) about six times. The last time was while she was at an adult family home very close to her death. So when I see it I always think of Mom who was an incurable romantic.

Here is how the Jumping Jay painting looked last week and the week before that. 

I didn't know about "Wild Wednesday." Wonder if this qualifies? I'll tag it that and let Cailleach decide.