Here's looking at you, Kid!

I'm finished. I'm done with it. Nearly two hours had done by. That'll do. Not what I would have liked, but the best I could. It just didn't look like a frog, not the one in the water I was looking at in the photograph. Not the one I'd admired in the pond, just a couple of days before.

​

I knew it needed something, but had no idea what. This is why study is important, I told myself. Why you need a class, a teacher; at the very least, a text book to give you some clues. I did have Vibrant Acrylics by Hashim Akib, which is really good. Only I find myself trying to be like him, not me. Or so it feels. I did, though, pick it up for help with groundings and brush strokes for the key features. I really liked his dark green grounding, which seemed just right for the depths of a pond in a large garden. How could I resist orange, process cyan and titanium white? And who'd have thought it combines to make such a lovely, rich green? Next, I outlined the features, as guided, with process magenta. This helped a lot with the cross-referencing, if not with the eyes! I'm terrible at 'eyes'! I mostly work from front to back (or the other way round), adding objects in, I noticed.

​

Trouble is, I don't find it easy to take in new stuff, when I read it. This could be because of my energy or interest levels, of course. But I've been reflecting on this. Apart from a few years at either end of my paid, working career, I have needsmust got on with it, producing what I could in the time I had. Over the years, I have stopped making the effort to find out how things work. I just worked! It just worked, or it didn't. There had been one exception to this, nothing to do with work. I felt I'd come across an oasis in a desert with keys to rooms of a vast library. Over a two-year period, I took a course, called Equipping for Ministry, at the Woodbrooke Study Centre in Birmingham. Within given parameters, you explored all that was important to you, and wrote and read and sat and did nothing (really hard, it turns out!) and played and sang and talked... I had the most wonderful experiences.  They enabled me to rediscover my voice and this has led to me doing many creative things, like this, painting, and writing about it. I am a naturally quiet person. I like being quiet. Painting is great for stillness. Quiet is good.

​

Back to the painting. Time to pack away everything..? Well, I'll just go to the loo. On the way back, I called in at the front window to see if there were any birds on the feeder. All was quiet. I came back into the kitchen and looked again at the frog. My legs sat down... You know, maybe, there is something I can do to help you. It's meant to look blue-ish. Go for it! Get the cereleum blue out! Add more silver! Green! Where is the green?!? Using the smallest brush available, I went back to work. And I am so happy with the painting. It delights me, so I go back into the room, where it currently lays, just to look back at it with love. Here's looking at you, Kid?