September 14th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 20 x 24 in

This is a long way from done, but I am posting it as it stands right now because I left the field today just teeming with shame and frustration, I thought the painting was so horrible that I couldn’t do anything but race to my car and try to drive away and forget. I took its picture (in a dark driveway, so don’t take the colours and light too literally) as a sort of punishment to myself, so I could look at it all night on my phone and brood about my failure. But when I looked at it on my phone, prepared for the weeping and gnashing of teeth these things generally warrant, I just thought “Oh. Huh. Well, that’s actually a little pretty. Maybe I overreacted.” There is still plenty I can see to improve. But it’s nice to be free of some of the drama I had bound myself in.