Happy Beginnings

I've been doing copies of famous (and sort of famous) paintings I like, just to warm myself back up after a long time away. It seems to be working. I'm already getting restless and want to strike out more in my own way.

The warmup after time away has been useful. Good for noticing such things as;

-attention span

-areas of interest or boredom in setting up a piece

-the feeling in the body: arm/hand to eye/thought and their relation to the emotive/inner visual

-motor skills and duration, and the nature of them

-one's internal image and reference bank. Has it changed? What might it be now? What is one's relation to it?

-ability to translate emotive/visual and logic/visual into workable visual tropes on a canvas or piece of paper

-what's interesting to oneself now?

So, with all that going on (as usual), I set out to do a small copy of a Corot from reproduction.

I'm entranced by the original, but right away, I was ferociously bored by the thought of pecking and flitting away at all these minute details - details that were so integrally gestural in the original, it would be an idiotic errand to try and match them. so, i found myself brushing away with washes rather wildly, letting things drip and run  - and enjoying myself!

I think that's a good sign. A Happy Beginning - to setting out, originally, again.