Painting again at long last!

It feels like such a long time that I haven't painted, since I've been involved in preparing, (cooking and organizing) for the Jewish holiday of Passover, which has consumed much of my time. Before that I was trapped by the endless paperwork necessary in order to enter the competition that has interested me recently, an exhausting ordeal.

So it felt great today to participate in the figure drawing class I typically attend.  I loved that some of the model's poses were held for 1/2  hour or an hour. This allows time to sort out how I want to position the model on my page, and what is important. The risk here is that the length of time can lead to overworking a piece, simply because you can!  I trashed the last 1 hour sketch that had started to look (to me) like an Egyptian profile figure (a la Nefertiti), and I felt it was reminiscent of the period in history when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt .(Must have been my enslavement cooking matzoh balls, chicken soup, matzoh kugel, etc.) I pictured that my figure was forced to labor  building the pyramids. Now we are FREE, I told myself joyously, because Moses led us in our exodus from Egypt, escaping across the Red Sea, as it parted for us to pass.

After all that thinking and some joking about the figure I drew, I just couldn't take it seriously, so in the garbage can it went. At the top is one of the successful drawings. More can be seen on the my web page portraits and figures (see my site map on the left). Some are included in the slide show when you scroll down far enough on that page.

It was a productive day, and also made me laugh, so it was good in several ways. I topped it off by watching "Great Balls of Fire", the Jerry Lee Lewis story, with Dennis Quaid playing the riotous and talented Jerry Lee. It's one of my favorite movies! Rowdy and awesome!