There is something magical about painting. I believe it is the transition from being ugly first and ending up the prom queen at the finish, if you are lucky and skillful enough. 

Most times I will start a painting and it looks really awful for awhile. I think to myself, this is a disaster. It looks like a bad cartoon. I feel a bit let down. Sometimes I will just leave it for a day and come back to it. The next day I’ll face it and begin to learn its secrets and progress through the mystery. After that the magic begins. The transition from a waste to a better painting than I thought possible is the magic.

Once at a paint out, I sat around a table with several painters. We discussed how our paintings started with an ugly stage. One of the painters declared that her paintings always looked good at every stage from beginning to conclusion. Later that day I made my way through trees to take a look at her painting in progress. It looked just as bad as ours did! Ego was not her friend. 

Country painters are learners…..