Painting Moods

[Kimberly Dow]

Do any of you find you need to paint slower or more meticulous, but can't at times?

I will vary from portraits to still lifes, landscapes..whatever is on my plate at the time. I find that if I have done a few portraits I am ready to do something less challenging and loosen up a bit. The problem comes when I need to get tighter again - and can't seem to.

A lot of it has to do with time, if I know I only have 3 hours at the studio because of appointments I might turn to the painting that I can accomplish the most in during that 3 hours.

After painting fairly loose on a few florals/still lifes recently I can not seem to get into the proper groove for a figurative I am working on. I am going too fast and loose.

Anyone else who may have this annoyance please speak up and tell me how you deal with it. I tend to vary how I paint with different subjects. Unfortunatly the time it is taking me to get back to another way is ticking me off.

Another issue is that it is cold here (no heat on in the studio when I am not there), so my paintings are taking weeks to dry. As a result I have 4 paintings in the works right now. So I am switching back and forth as they dry.

I almost feel like it's me though - been runnig around too busy and can't seem to catch the 'relaxed' mode it takes me to get tighter.