Of Gaffs and Waiting

After a major gaff this past weekend, I ended up owing a guy a painting.  I'm not going to get into any in-depth explanation but suffice it to say that in an extremely rare occurrence, my memory was more correct than Amy's, and a new policy was born whereby I shall no longer sell or discuss selling paintings that are not present at events I attend.  While a painting's presence does not mean it is not for sale (in fact, it's likely up for grabs), I cannot guarantee that my memory of the painting's location will be 100% accurate and I'd rather not come home again to find out that I've managed to sell a painting twice.

I'm sure that last bit made some of you want to slap me upside the head and I totally cop to being unprofessional and disorganized.  There really is no excuse for what happened and I guarantee that it will never happen again (my new policy ensures it).  Fortunately, the guy in question was pretty awesome about the whole thing and instead it was agreed that I would just go ahead and paint a new painting.

Okay, so that's more in-depth than I intended, and it really did sound shorter in my head... Moving on...

So, what does this mean?  Well, I had promised a while ago to do progress shots of a personal piece or a cover that was allegedly going to come through.  As of right now, the cover is MIA and due to the gaff mentioned above, I now have to paint something during the time I had set aside to work on my personal piece.  Still, I'll be able to post progress shots of this new piece, which means I can still fulfill a promise to the readers of this blog — I swear progress shots will appear in the near future.  However, it also means that I've broken a promise to myself.

As it now stands, I likely won't get on with my own work until late in the summer at the absolute earliest.  I have several large commissions queued up and I just know that time is going to roar by at an alarming rate.  With all the expenses of the world, client work and commissions need to come first, but I must confess that I am getting itchy.  The desire to work on something that is all my own with no one else's input is quickly going from whisper to shout.  It's been a year and a half since I managed to squeeze something in and the wait before me feels like an eternity.

The bad news is that everything between now and then may become tainted with resentment as it's not what I want to be doing.  Travel, taking the time to ride a bike or take a walk, and doing work for clients is all going to be seen on some level of my brain as hindrances to the perceived bliss and promise of my own work.  This is not uncommon for me, and it's something I've touched on before (link).  While I'll still put my all into each piece I have ahead of me, there's a part of me that will be irritated until the time comes when I can finally sit down and start slapping paint with no one to answer to.

The good news is this.  I have the reference — in fact, I've had the reference since before I moved to Massachusetts.  I also have the surface: thirty inches by forty inches, stretched Belgian linen — I've had that a long time, too.  I've got the materials, and I've got the sketch.  Now all I need is the time.