Painting an 'afterthought'

Blue Room Afterthought, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm,

Although I intended to take down the blue room today, I just had to get one last long look at it before  I did.  In front of the table I had made (out of piled up boxes, a board and some fabric) is a chair.  On the chair is some more fabric, draped, and I sat on the chair at the start of last week to be photographed.  The artist becomes her still life. The chair, the cloth and the memory of the photography session hanging around the room between the subject and my easel.  What if I took a few steps back?  What if I shamelessly let everyone see that it was something I had set up in my studio, not something I happened upon?

Today after drawing group I intended to do a quick painting on a small canvas.  I have said over and over that I want to paint more and one way I thought that might happen was if I did more quick studies, alla prima painting in my colourist way. The 'blue room' beckoned.  I think, because I'd explored it in detail, over time, I was happy to use shorthand and the shapes and a way of decribing their textures guided me in this afterthought..