30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 11

"Constitute" - watercolor on paper, 12" x 8.5".  Inquiries.

[Scene: Ravine floor. Ahead looms the dark of the Fire Swamp]
​
Westley: Ha! Your pig fiance is too late. A few more steps and we'll be safe in the fire swamp.
Buttercup: We'll never survive.
Westley: Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.
      from The Princess Bride


Westley!  Ever the optimist and believer in seeming impossibilities.  Buttercup seems downright cynical next to our Westley.  But he makes a huge point:  just because no one has ever done something doesn't mean it can't be done.

Now if you apply this to your passion, whatever it may be, and go boldly forth, determined to put naysayers to the side and GO WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE, you just might get it done.

I suppose I must seem like a very busy person, because there is a question I am asked often:  "How do you do everything you do?"   But this is where it gets tricky.  See, I don't think of myself as doing a lot, really, so the question trips me up a bit.  I do, however, make a practice of telling myself there is time and energy enough to do everything I need and want to do.  There are a dozen other local creatives I know who do as much or more than I do.  And I see them approaching life the same way - just assume you can do it.  And, usually, you will.

Like Westley, you can also survive the fire swamp.

Now let's talk about art.  I am diligently working away on the large pieces from last week's workshop.  But I wanted to show you something else today, so here is yet another piece begun during the workshop and just now finished.  This began as a five object contour drawing exercise, then painting new shapes created by the overlapping drawings.  Several more layers of paint, some scratching and detail work, then some more paint.  I decided to place some words in here as practice for the bit of lettering in one of the large pieces.  I like the effect of the neutral ("Palette Gray") and black breaking up the other colors.

If you're in south Florida today and want to come out and play, stop on over to the Miami Watercolor Society meeting today at 2 pm., where I'll be demonstrating a bit of malarkey.  Pinecrest Gardens Community Center, 5855 SW 111th St, Pinecrest, FL 33156. (Killian parkway).  This is a free event, and all are welcome.