February 14th, 2014

     I should have been painting by now! (Oh the stuff that gets in the way. ) It seems that there is 
always something to be done.  I have had eyelids larger than my eyes and which were affecting 
my vision, so finally have had surgery.  One would think this recuperation time would be ideal
for painting, however am not yet able to put my contacts in, so my eyesight is not ideal. Thank 
heavens for large type! 
     I have not only sea shells, but baskets of "ideas" for paintings. That is almost worse than none,
for which does one choose? I realize that too many ideas are just another form of fear and 
procrastination. Once there is a time of not painting for several days, it  is easy to lose momentum.
Tomorrow is a good day to begin stretching more paper and I will have no excuses to 
postpone painting any longer. At worst, I may need to resort to the "dirty paper" method to get started
-- just throw some neutral color on fresh paper. Then it is not fresh and perfect any longer,
so cannot be "ruined" by a mistake. Once the  "mistake" is already on the paper, it is no longer a 
source of fear of failure. Of course, that doesn't guarantee a  great painting, but one doesn't get 
great paintings by not painting!