I had to be very bold to add the highlights to this section of the painting. I was looking at the reflection of light as I was driving on the bridge, and I tried to capture that effect back in the studio. My fear about putting down thick strokes of paint is that I lose the raw effect on some parts of the canvas.

You learn a lot about yourself from painting. Sometimes you got to take risk, sometimes you got to play it safe.


Here's what it looks like so far. Looks a bit less finished then it did yesterday, but that said, I think the form and the depth is described well enough. All that is left is the colour. Then working out the contrast.

What a journey it has been. 30 days really seems like a long time. And if I started this endeavor sick and jaded, I finish strong. Yes I'm not there yet, but the end is in sight and I am confidant, in so many ways the paintings this month have been like a dairy of my interior state.

And what a transformative journey it has been. If I can have confidence and boldness tomorrow, this painting will be one of the best I have done. To date, it is the most ambitious.

I may blog my progress tomorrow, leading up to the final post and Godwilling, the finished work.
I invite your well wishes, and your support, cheer me on this last stretch.

I hope you've enjoyed the journey too, I am certainly happy to have had you onboard.

And now I reveal the title of the painting: Verge.

Some people see the gray area between light and dark, safe. But think about it. You are at once on the verge of greatness and damnation.

then waiting

I am sitting here thinking, planning, asking the question: where do I take this, how do I get there. No answer comes. Because I've taken this painting as far as I can. And to finish it, I will need supernatural strenght.

I will stop thinking and planning then, and I will pray. And I will sit there until the supernatural power comes. At the end of my ability I find my creative energy, from the Creator.

I walked into my mother's scrap book shop, I took her her hand and put it on my head and said, "I'm going to paint now, bless me."

She put both her hands on my head and blessed me, and I felt a surge of calmness in me, if calm can come in surges. I felt at peace. Anxiousness and all it's relations left me.

I am ready.

and for those of you who keep count. here's number 39.