I've been working on a painting for over a week now. I usually don't take that much time to complete a painting, so this is very unusual for me. I had an idea of what I wanted, I had a reference photo to get me started, I had a board primed and ready to paint on...it seemed like every thing was good to go. I started by just roughly sketching out the subjects in black, then adding some white to get the contrasts going. For the next few hours I splashed and spattered all sorts of colors on it, which is always something I enjoy. After everything had dried I started in corralling everything and taking it to where I wanted it to go. This is where I started having troubles. I was looking to make it kind of cubist, kind of expressionistic...hard to describe, but I had a picture in my head of exactly how I wanted it. As I worked on it more and more, it looked less and less like I envisioned it. The picture in my head became like last night's dream. I could sort of remember it, but as I tried to focus on it, it slipped away. I haven't given up, but I did take some time away from it this week end, partly to refresh my artistry, but mainly because I worked all weekend. I sit looking at it now, thinking that it is very close to being done, wondering just what it will look like when it's over, and thinking that it may not resemble my original idea at all. Here's a picture of my progress so far link and there are more shots of my journey in the photo album. I just remind myself of my new mantra: it's all about the journey.