Some Days Are Difficult

       Aiden, Graphite; 6 x 8", TMDD Series

Sometimes you just can't leave well enough alone. That's how it was this morning.  Not that this is
a challenging pose , but I had ot going pretty good and then got too into it and feel like I did one pass too many.  But a sketch, is a sketch, is a sketch.  It's a tool used to get acquainted with what makes this kid this kid.  So on to the next and so sketching for a short time in the morning goes.  Never a portrait  finished, just features scrutinized and likenesses captured or not.

I don't remember how many weeks it's been since I got to the studio, but yesterday afternoon I had to go.  My guilt was piling up.  I'd like to think the extreme cold was keeping me away--and for a while that was true--but it's warming up now-- I no longer must bundle up in shoes with a jacket on top of a jacket to walk through the door. After lunch I made my way downstairs thinking just thirty minutes Do something. Anything. That was the plan.

 I started in on the still life in my preparation sketch of Ruby, the bowl, the fork, the table. I concentrated on the bowl, but I kept looking at my watch, waiting for enough time to pass to call my visit respectable.  My concentration was somewhere else.  So I scraped the paint I had hardly touched  and turned off the lights.  I felt better that I had made an effort--even if it was a minor one, but I  suspected I was still wondering what's the purpose of all of this?  I've been wondering that since Mexico, since that painting class actually. 

A bowl, a fork,  a table should be simple enough, but some days, they are impossible.