6:11 pm: the rain, wind and thunder commenced 5 minutes ago. i was sitting in our east living room working on action lab corrections when i said to mikela "i think we may need to close the windows because it's going to r... "and before i got the word out of my mouth, it started pouring. a torrential rain and wind gusts that often accompany the storms emerging from the seasonal monsoonal flow originating down in mexico. the kind of rain that could give you an inch in less than an hour. it's just fantastic! and the smells! OMG. one of the great gifts in living here are these summer storms.
3 pm: rarely have i felt too exhausted to carry on painting. especially one i'm so excited by. the only thing i can possibly attribute it to is that both mikela and i are suffering form seasonal allergies, made worse by all the moisture and resulting abundance of weeds and pollen. i took an antihistamine earlier in the day; something i haven't done for at least a year. so i think that may be the culprit. tomorrow, if i have symptoms,i'd rather sneeze & sniffle than feel the way i'm feeling right now.
so i'm stopping for the day. as i said earlier, today was definitely a critical day for parade 48, and what work i did do went well, but i had hoped to take it further.
parade 48 56"x68" oil on portrait linen as it looked at the end of my painting day today
9:24 am: i'm sitting on our west facing living room couch making corrections to the actionlab curriculum. i have a deadline, so if i miss a day or two, as has happened recently, i need to make it up. today is a make up day, and i need to balance that with critical work on parade 48, which is about 25% away from completion. this painting may end up being the centerpiece of my november houston show, which is why today & tomorrow are critical.
on the left, parade 48 as i left it yesterday afternoon.
this morning at 5:45 am,as we commenced our daily walk, the sky was dramatic, and gave indications of a continuing monsoonal flow in this unusually wet....for our valley...summer.