Working Title

In lieu of a therapist or confessional, I have this blog. Since you already know how little I’ve been scanning my sketches, let me confess to you how little I’ve been painting lately. (And when I refer to painting here on my personal blog, I do mean oil painting on paper or on canvas in my studio, mostly from photographs.)

Last year at the end of August I worked to get my painting mojo back, and immediately followed that up with a three-month jag of house-hunting, selling and moving, though I was able to do some painting during that time.

Then at the beginning of this year I had some commissions (several paintings and a sketch!), and working on them was a great way to get to know my new studio. After the commissions it was just all work work work on the Urban Sketchers Symposium during June and July.

After that was done and I was back from Manchester and settled back in I thought that it was time to paint. I worked really hard to do all the other stuff that needed doing so that when Studio Night came around I could just paint paint paint instead of work work work, which led me to feel like this when Studio Night came around: “QUICK! HURRY! PAINT! What if I die tomorrow and there are ten shitty unfinished paintings sitting in my studio?!” So I’ve been doing a lot of rushed, crappy work for the past few weeks.

I’ve got three months left with Urban Sketchers; my term as President is up on December 9. I’ve got a lot of work to do until then. I know better than to try to force the painting. After December 9, when the Era of Lazy Elizabeth begins, I will be painting at my own pace on Studio Nights, sketching whenever I feel like it, playing with new art materials and thinking about how to teach with them, looking at more art, and engaging with my local art community (once again).

Don’t get me wrong, I love Urban Sketchers like it’s a member of my family, but what I don’t love is my own Leo/ISTJ/oldest-daughter need to take charge of everything that interests me, and become so focused on it that other things suffer.

So here’s a sketch of my desk and coffee cup, and of Memphis Pizza Cafe that I did waiting to pick up a pizza one Studio Night a couple of weeks before the Symposium. Maybe one day I will scan my sketches from the Symposium, too!

(click image for more detail)