A Spanish sugar-rush made me do it

As 2016 clocked over into 2017, I resolved to do away with resolutions.

Not because I don’t like them, but because I love them a little too much… In January alone, my library borrowings included books like Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar; Daily Painting by Carol Marine and, I kid you not, Speak Spanish in a Week (complete with audio CD!)

Clearly, if I’d made a resolution it would be: “Ignore all previous resolutions and go at things with all the fervour of someone in denial of work and family commitments or, in fact, the existence of only 24 hours in a day.”

In a wee moment of self-awareness, I revisited some of the notes I wrote when I first had the idea to paint and blog. It seemed that my 2016 self could predict that I would do this. Among other self-motivating and guiding statements I had written, “Prioritize. Ask myself, ‘Is this really how I want to spend my time?‘”

After I finished laughing at myself, I re-evaluated things. I do love to paint, but I have such a long way to go. My initial goal of being ready to exhibit in a year makes my son’s statements about ‘playing in the Australian cricket team’ look absolutely attainable in comparion. But that’s okay – I won’t throw the goal away, I’ll just keep working towards it and see what happens.

So I said ¡Adiós! to Spanish for the time being and ¡Hola! to the sketch pad again.

There really are only so many hours in a day, and with school holidays in full flight, I knew I wouldn’t get much uninterrupted time at the easel. I did, however, manage another of my red chair paintings over the Summer:

 

And with my extra art-based reading, I now know that I painted this alla prima (wet into wet paint or, all-in-one-go). Ah, the satisfaction of learning…

So, in answer to my question: ‘Yes. This really is how I want to spend my time.’