Hope springs eternal

I am experiencing both encouragement and discouragement. I am encouraged because it is spring, and I can once again paint outside. I am discouraged because two works did not make the Artists of Rubber City show (Kaitlin with Flowers and Yellow Creek Revisited.) This is the second total rejection in a row, and half of the entries got in. How can I not feel a bit deflated?

I now have a total of four Friday paintings not finished since LaVerne in February. That's a lot of 5-dollar-bills towards starts without finishes! I've resolved to sit out the next model and get cracking on Saubra, Patrick, John and Elaine.

I did finish three paintings that capture the mood of the season. I am feeling quite dead and stuck, yet hopeful. Maybe that is why I have found solace painting graveyards fringed by spring growth. (Love and hate working with the sponge...)

These scenes reflect both an emotional and spiritual place in my life.

Am I simply hungering for "life in all its fullness"?



"I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it
more abundantly."

—Jesus