I started to block in areas of the painting today.....

I put the foundations for the red roofs and the red tile paving area on the bottom left and added a few hints of green around the right hand side of the garden area. I need to put in a lot more green foliage in the large area left in the center before the painting will look balanced though. Time caught up on me as I re-drew the boundaries to the right leaving me room to put a coloured line vertically up the canvas (as a glimpse of a shutter) rather than let the white wall edge the painting because I felt it may leave the piece looking unfinished. I didn't want to have to colour the wall other than adding the shadows, just to keep within the general feel of the scene. I may leave the colour until the piece is nearly finished to allow me to see how it works without it though. I have altered the vertical line of the paving to the bottom left already but after looking at the photo I think I will change the horizontal line also as it is too level.

I'm almost chomping at the bit to get back to the studio to continue working on it, but I better not....she who must be obeyed has other ideas...so I'll leave it until the morning, but I guess it will be an early start.

I haven't felt this keen to work since before my illness (almost 2 years ago) and I know it will only be a one-off piece, unless I go back of course, but I have ideas about it. It is not going to give me a series of works for any kind of show, but, it has given me the drive I've been lacking. I know the painting will be an experiment, already I'm changing how it will be structurally, and I'm determined that how I paint it will be as my fancy takes me...even if the style changes as I go through it. It is a painting for ME personally anyway, not for critics, or, from a selling point of view, the viewer, if the painting ends up too busy or totally unstructured it ends up that way. It's my canvas and if I make a total b**ls of it I can always re-use the framework and spend $60 on more canvas to cover it with..it's not the end of the world.. but World watch out I'm back, and I'm feeling good about my work again..