Smooth Cool Blueness

A week or so ago when I painted the piece above I had planned for it to be the underpainting or background of a more ambitious effort. Since then it has laid on my work table waiting. Often as I passed by, I would run my hand across it's smooth, cool blueness. Sometimes when the need to paint would overcome me, I would look at it again, touch it, and let it be. It has a soothing quality about it.

Above is a much smaller painting that I started while teaching the Exploring Acrylics Class. I got it out thinking that I might add more to it and yet again I became entranced with the piece as it is. The micaceous iron oxide sparkling darkly in the foreground and the iridescent blobs and smears seemingly in the distance. It intrigues me with its mysterious landscape-ishness. 

In Flight

This is another little 5 x 7 piece that I started during the class. It too was mere smears of colors to begin with. However, I was able to add to this one a few finishing touches over the course of a few days after or before work. 

I haven't made much art lately, and my ritual of writing morning pages has recently been skipped or reduced. I have found myself inclined to exhaustion and unpleasant complaining, which reminded me yet again that art making and writing are vital ingredients for my well being. Disagreeable consequences ensue when I neglect them.  I must all the more diligently allow myself time for the recuperative power of healthy self expression. Breathing, eating, sleeping, loving, making art and writing are all necessities for my happy life.