riders at ghost ranch

gouache on plywood

8" x 17"

i'm starting a new blog.  the challenge:  a painting a day.  

lately i've been doing so much commercial design and illustration that i haven't really felt much at all like an artist. that, plus daily chores and the rigmarole of owning a business and living in a barn has led my fine art life to hide like a little kid with a flashlight in a blanket fort: beneath the covers. today, fed up with it all, i decided to take my mother's fine advice, to uncover the beast, and do a painting a day.  making it public, like quitting smoking, serves to hold me accountable to some larger audience.  if this works, i will no longer be whining, pissing, grumbling and moaning that i never have time to paint.  because i will make time.

today, i bit off a little more than i could chew.  like the good old days when i painted Americana landscapes, i opened an old 50's USA in color book, and picked the first thing that seemed interesting.  gouache on panel was something i did long ago, and it's way easier to clean up than oil paint, so i though i'd give it a shot.  feeling a bit rusty at the onset. plus, the picture was way too complex to be a quick shot... i may have rushed it, but here it is: painting number one.