Rest Day(s)

Since painting class finished up, I’ve painted somewhere between 5-6 days each week.  While I would like to be at 7 days per week, deciding up front that painting most days or a the majority of days during the week is the right place for me.

I can take responsibility and commitment too far and I think that contributed to losing my art practice during most of the pandemic.  I kept at it because I felt like I should do it and I wanted to do it, but I was also burned out and lacked the energy or the right type of energy to draw and paint.  I pushed myself too far when it would have been far better to turn down the responsibility and turn up the rest.  

Rest may sound like a funny word to use for this.  However, I’ve been thinking about rest in a different way.  I’ve started exercising regularly with 5 days of exercise and 2 days of rest.  I really need the rest days.  They support and allow me to show up more fully on the exercise days.  

When I’m a certain combination and level of brain and body tired, painting drains rather than nourishes.  Sometimes, I’ll push through and paint anyway, but sometimes taking the day off is a better choice. 

Here are two paintings from this week.  I’ve painted from this photo before.

I did not have a plan when I painted this one, plus I rushed in places and was not careful mixing colors.  This will not being going into the stack for Art 4 Shelter. Even so, I wanted to document it.