Drawing through

Flowers on a Grey Day, pastel on paper, 28 x 28 cm

It was another one of those rainy days today. It was also the day I'd hear about an important open submission.  It's hard to get anything done on days when I'm waiting to hear.  But I wanted to change things around a little with the stilllife I had painted and approach it with pastels. I put some cloth over part of the existing background, shortened the daffodils, cut some new hellebores and draped a blue cloth napkin over the red box.  I put some fishing line across the back and hung one of my painted paper collages over it. The beginning marks were awful and I nearly quit repeatedly. The true colour on the right is orange and that flummoxed me for a time.

Once I'd heard I hadn't had either of the pieces I'd carried down to London on Saturday accepted, instead of allowing myself to wallow, I grew determined.  I knew that I would feel awful for a little while but that that would ebb and the best way around it was to draw through. 

And here is that other painting, finished.