Satisfaction

Not much is better than when feeling fairly satisfied with oneself.  This doesn't happen often with me, mind you, but when it does, it usually is a result of getting much accomplished.  And no different this time for me either.  But that sense of satisfaction, job well done hit me late yesterday afternoon and still resides within this morning.

I did work all day Saturday, 7 to 4, at work.  Finished my plant's inventory and finished the other plant's inventory.  Problems in the second plant and I worked to find them after I got home Saturday night and a good chunk of yesterday.  I think I've found the problems.  That feels good!

I've been practicing the harp as usual but what stumped last week with each practice AND at my lesson has suddenly become a bit easier.  Yay!  I do practice each morning for about a half hour but admit I missed one day of practicing last week...I think it was Thursday morning.

I even managed to paint more on my oil piece yesterday and am just thrilled with how this piece is coming along.  It is one of the few pieces where I haven't been frozen with fear at a certain point.  I pretty much just have the house, the shed, and the oil tank left to do on it.  I like the way the wheat fields turn out though I thought they were going to be my nemesis.  I just kept at them until I managed the right color blends (the foreground wheat, I used scarlet lake, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, black, and white) and got the brush strokes to work for me as I needed them to work.

Whoever invented Liquin is a genius and thank you to...was it Julie?...who said I should try using it.  And yes, it is expensive but I must admit that I am finding that you don't have to use much (fortunately I figured this out immediately in my fear of wasting the liquid gold). 

I am also hopeful that the vibrancy of color in the sky will come through loud and clear once it is varnished.  That will be my foray into further experimentation - seeing if that varnish will bring back the depth and luster that I removed by using too much turpenoid in my oil paints when painting the sky. 

I haven't figured out about the size of the shed though.  I was looking at it closely and my shed roof comes up to about the same spot on the house as in the original photograph.  I think the problem in it looking too small is that I moved it closer to the house than in the photo and didn't increase the size relative to that.  I've pretty much decided to keep it a shed - which will mean making it larger when I paint it. 

I guess I could show you the latest progress rather than talk about it.  Mind you I am not getting too big for my britches here.  I can always find fault with my own work and I always do.  I do not think oils will become my primary medium either as I still am in love with the watercolors.  But boy!  I think Liquin is the greatest thing since sliced bread and has worked a miracle in taking away my usual apprehension of using oils.

Without further ado, here is where I am currently:

Sorry for the weird angle and the dot of light reflection...  And I wanted to see what Adobe Photoshop Elements would do to this when I was playing in the program for a few minutes.  I turned it into black and white (this was called "vivid landscape" in my options).