Discovering the joy of blues today ...bold, bright and unmixed blues to both lowlight and highlight.  You see them in others paintings and are even given advice as to how it will bring your painting to life but when it comes to actually laying that "ever so bright not very skin tone looking blue" down it does make you inhale sharply and question your sanity!  ...And then joy ...it works, it really does work!  Still a few rough spots to iron out but I'm going in the right direction.

Got up early today, showered, cleaned up, Hetty to school and Nick to work so that I could have as long as possible painting.  Still working on the horse, have repainted the eye to be more horizonal and fixed the shadows on the forlock.  Nearly at the end of this one although I do have to spend a morning or afternoon sketching and drawing some cheekbones to really accustom myslef with the structure ...that really helps me in my painting if I come to a sticky bit that I'm not quite sure how to tackle.    Also working on that contempory portrait, the one with the blues, this is a really experimental piece and I'm happy to keep painting over and over it (just think how yummy the texture is going to be in the end!)  However I am itching to do another abstract again so might go and prep a canvas.  I really enjoy the whole freedom of abstract, the organic-ness (for want of another word) of the whole process of laying down texture and then applying paint this way and that ...not really sure where you are going or what is going to evolve.  But I still need to learn "how to paint" to learn what works and what doesn't, to learn about colour (and lets face it there is sooo much to learn about colour) as I learn more of these things I am certain it will improve my abstract paintings ...take them to the next level.

The more I progress the more I find myself wondering, or should that be wishing, about having a mentor.  Someone to say "try this next" or "do it this way"  but on the other hand maybe as artsists these are things we should discover for overselves.  I dare say there is more satisfaction from discovering them by ourselves too.  But what a luxury to have a guide, a wise advisor!