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                 "Between each fruitful phase are long periods of exploration, faltering, learning, and working things out." By Kenneth Noland

From nine to two today I licked the canvas! I saw myself drawing and trying to get everything perfect as I was painting. I was getting very stressed out and not making progress!

 It was the same feeling as housework. Clean the kitchen; leave the room, next five minutes no one can’t tell that I was ever in there cleaning. It was a never ending, unrewarding cycle of not accomplishing anything (like housework living with a house full of guys).

 I stopped, fixed myself some hot tea and looked up art blogs on licking canvases. Guilty as hell!

 An hour later I was back to my painting. This time I layered  more paint on my brushes. I placed only one stroke for each part of the canvas. I painted each stroke as the one only and last time I would touch that canvas area. When I finished I stepped back and looked at my painting. IT WORKED!

 Orange Lilies by Debra Snyder Heard

 I am about half way through with this painting. Still have a lot of work to do.

 Thank you for reading my blog,

Debra Snyder Heard

I just finished a 4 day Still Life/Figure Oil Painting Workshop from the artist Robert Johnson, in Fredericksburg Texas.

I feel like I learned a lot, and also learned I have a lot of work to do.

Even though I just started back into painting, my drawing skills really helped me tremendously. 

  Meeting other artists that have a lot of the same goals is a wonderful way to keep motivated. Learning from a more experienced artist is even better!

 The timing was perfect because Friday night was the monthly art crawl to visit the open art galleries.

It was a long drive to and back, about 12 hours each way. Driving in heavy rains, having a flat tire, being strung out on coffee, was part of my travel experience.

My husband asked me if I would do it again and did I think it was worth it?

I told him yes, because it takes a lot to be committed to improve. Other people in the workshop drove for 2 days to get there, and lived farther than I did.

Thank you for reading my blog,

Debra Snyder Heard