day #365 - the end of an era

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I thought I was on top of it; I had finished early and was looking for a movie to watch already 3 hours ago. And I don't know how time went by. A phonecall, some networking studying, some online shopping and here we are, already past the time for an early movie. Regardless, today is a special day. The blog is over! I finished 365 days of daily painting and recording it, whatever that means. A big part of the process I will have to keep doing mainly for myself. Perhaps taking daily photos of my work and saving it on some folder. This has provem useful many times when I trying to date a piece I've been working on. Also making a small diary of today's achievements. It's still useful. But this will be done for my eyes only. I also don't know if I will be continuing my obsessively daily painting. How would life be if I had days off? Now for example that I'm moving out and I have to daily chores that until now were completely taken care of, perhaps I'll allow my
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day #38 - Tree detail

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Today I managed once again to paint early in my day; which was a huge relief since I had my evening free. I was down at the moat in my town sitting by a bench fitting fighting the flies, when I decided to take out my notebook and watercolors. I haven't been good with foliage and even more so when trying to paint in the additive manner such as that which watercolors require. I was hoping to make the foreground sprouting leaves stand out but I feel I've failed.

However there is a lot to like about this painting (after all this blog is a reminder that I should celebrate the small victories; and an ongoing attempt to discover the beauty in my art). I like the foliage; It's been better than before and the background foliage is good overall. Particularly the one on the right. I like the contrast between foliage and lit background (in the middle particularly) and some leaves have a certain degree of translucency. I also like all these shades of gray - from bluish, to green, to brownish - all made with payne's gray. The general sensation and the compositing leave me a positive aftertaste, and the belief that next time, I'll be even better!

Funny how I feel uncomfortable when I call these works "paintings". What are they? Doodles? Sketches? A painting needs a painter, and I feel undeserving of the title...

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