Time Flies

Already ten days have passed since my last entry, and I have a feeling that this will be the rate of input, after the  initial, enthusiastic, daily updates.  The painting of S finished itself...time, visits, comments, all conspired to finish it.  When someone said they wanted to touch it, I was happy.  There is a lot of releif in it even though it is a small canvas.  There are many layers and some nice palette knife work.  I am more and more drawn towards abstract but continue to resist, though I did leave a small 8" x 8" completely abstract for now.  It is more or less a sampling of new colors, strokes and pigmetnts.  The funny thing is that I can rarely remember how an effect was achieved since I use so many different mediums.  So each one really is an original which can't me repeated, like a rare jewel.   I'm looking forward to doing a few more.  The abstracts are really like playing, when I should be doing something more serious, such as the Zouzulas portrait of 13 family members.  That portrait is going really well by the way, but it requires utmost precision and decision.  By putting red curtains on each side of the standing family, as D suggested might work,  made them look like royalty.  They are, in their owm way!  I will emphasize that royal aspect as the work evolves.