I knew I should never do it – I put black back on my palette and bang its all over the place! It makes it too easy to do darks and I had just got the hang of creating dark tones using other colours. Lesson for the coming days is to remember that black needs to be used with restraint.
I’m a real Brit and drink gallons of tea everyday – when I’m at work its an excuse to get up from my desk. But when I’m at home it’s a break to walk away from a painting and then come back to look at a piece with fresh eyes. The only problem is that I then immediately see things that need doing and I put down my cup of tea and it invariably gets cold and I end up drinking rather tepid tea. One thing that I have not yet managed to adopt, from my new American side, is drinking iced tea – tea should only ever be very hot, served with milk, strong and preferably in a large mug. The other thing that I have been known to do all too often is to clean my brush in my tea cup!

I tidied my “studio” today (it is really the upstairs landing)and it seems a little more ordered and things are easier to reach. I have discovered that I have a number of mid size canvases and also two large ones which immediately set me to thinking what I could work on largescale. Time for that journal to come into play to work on some ideas.

One thing that I am going to have to find time for is some admin – Website, thinking about selling prints etc etc….. I really resent losing valuable paintng time to this sort of thing but its one of those things that really has to be done. What I need is a secretary! Or to give up my day job! My to do list is growing by the minute.