:: Without Plans ::

I love to plan things.  I like goal making … task lists etc.  It motivates me as a rule.

Recently we decided to take our travel trailer for a weeks get-a-way to the coast.  

Yippee, I'll take my oils and paint a bunch of small plein air paintings.  Of coarse I'm hopeing the weather will cooperate, but if not, I can paint out the window.  Maybe I''ll even take my watercolors and sketchbook just incase ...

And, the weather was beautiful.  Walking on the beach could not have been better.  Fall was in the air but the sun was giving us the impression that summer would hang on a lot longer.

And then out of the blue I hurt my shoulder.  Bursitis maybe?

Anyway I just need to stop making these plans ... its like the universe says "You are not in charge, I am in charge".

So, once again I did no plein air painting. 

This has to change ! I need to work thru these obstacles that I keep running into.

Last week before we left with the trailer I decided to work on a small study of some tangerines that I had purchased earlier in the week.  So,  just for practice, to see if I can remember to use big brushes and more paint,  I gathered my tangerines and a lovely blue and white saucer & arranged them on a tall plastic roll-around cart I have in the studio. Its a perfect height for a still life  set-up if standing at my easel.

After I had blocked everything in the light had changed to some degree and I decided to change the black to look more like a wood table top, from imagination. The black just wasn't working for me … 

• Had I used big brushes? YES but I still was too nit-picky.
• Did I mix enough paint so that I didn't end up scrubbing the paint into the canvas? NO

Even though I didn't remember everything I wanted to accomplish while working on this little study, 

I do think the painting session was a successful one because I will take notes and re-read my them prior to my next session.

Practice, practice, practice !

But its not a plan …...