I went up to the studio yesterday feeling rather blue and blah. I think the on-going rainy weather has taken a toll on my mood.

I put the heron painting back on the easel and looked at it for a while as I waited for my paint to thaw.  I keep my palette in an Master’s Palette Box and put the whole thing in the deep freezer when I’m done painting and I can keep working off the same paint puddles for days… even weeks sometimes. The only one that seems to dry up too fast to even benefit from the freezing is Burnt Umber which just dries up even during a single painting session. I really want to find something in that dark brown family that doesn’t dry so fast, but I haven’t found it yet.  But I digress.

I just wasn’t ready to work on the heron. So I put it aside and started a new cat painting. I got the drawing done pretty quickly as it was a fairly simple outline. Then, using a very large brush (probably larger than I should have used) I blocked in my underpainting. But I wanted to do more at that point, so picked up a second panel, put in my drawing and blocked in the under painting.

So now I have three paintings started. I’m not sure if this is a good idea or not. But here are the two cat paintings I’ve started. The first is the Tuxedo cat whose name is written down somewhere, but I can’t recall just where I put it. The second is one of the kittens who is also named, but whose name I did not write down when I visited the shelter. Before I’m done with these, I’ll find out again who they are.