bonytail chub

This is it! I can't believe I've finally reached my goal of 20 paintings for my solo show. I spent almost the entire day yesterday producing this one, start to finish (and I can still feel the strain in my neck). I needed to finish by last night so I'd have enough time to add an isolation coat, let it dry, then add a varnish and let that dry before I cart them all off to Lambert's Gallery tomorrow morning.

The most rewarding yet frustrating thing about my progress with this series is the difference between the earlier ones and the later ones. I want to burn the early ones and paint new ones, but realise that this is the negative cycle of the perfectionist and if I allowed myself to do that it would feed on itself and never get finished. Better just to accept imperfection, no matter how glaring it is to me, and move on. I'm more than ready for a change anyway.

While I worked on this painting, #2 son was tracking me with his progress on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He, too, had finished his project in under 10 hours.

Another lesson learned: never paint over cadmium red with white and expect it to remain white. Many coats later and it still looks pink...