February 27th, 2016
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 18 x 24 in

I was still not particularly “inspired” by the landscape, but I wanted to paint. I chose a subject that was of some interest, and jumped in. It’s funny because what I chose to paint was the birdhouse, but for the first three hours of my painting day, though ultimately the canvas was covered, there was no birdhouse in sight. Background comes first! By the time I was ready to lay in the birdhouse, the frigid wind had picked up and was blowing in force. I was freezing and didn’t have much control over my hand or the easel that kept lurching in the wind and threatening to blow away. So I got the gist in, then went home to warm up. Then, on Sunday (the 28th) I spent about 45 mins getting the birdhouse in there and fixing the foreground.
I remembered, in the process, that sometimes work is just work – and regardless of whether you feel “inspired” at the outset, you will always find things to be excited about… be it in the beauty of blending paints, the satisfaction of a color well matched, or a little highlight that ties seemingly disparate planes of color together. Always something worthwhile in the process.