walking and thinking

I think I shall reward myself by going for a wildflower walk in the valley with my camera.  I may, just may, be finished with "Stephen's Oslo."  The edges are done and the rigging is done, although it might beckon me once again for a touch of darkening (the very last jobs in every painting being that of  tweaking the darkest darks and the lightest lights, perhaps adding one more glaze......).  I even used the mahl stick that Bert Liverance taught us all how to make;  our group is made up of women and there were a number of jokes about how they would also function as "husband boppers" for those moments when "he isn't listening."  I think I've figured out how to use it, and it proved a dandy tool for steadying my arm when painting straight lines free-hand.  Have yet to use it to on Jon although opportunities have presented themselves.




Now I have to decide "What's next?" as President Bartlett always asked after that week's crisis on The West Wing.  I have several portraits I could start -- the second portrait of wee Rose :  "Prairie Rose" beckons.  But the image which insistently knocks at the door is that of Jon fishing in The Rocky on a summer day last year.  We were at Traverston and I stood on the iron bridge and shot everything in sight, including the lovely old mill.  Focused on retrieving his cast, Jon is almost crouched below me in the river.  It will have to be a horizontal painting so that one's eye can follow the flyline.  And it will have to be big, like this one.

 I will take that walk and think about it.

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