“Nostalgia” 5×5, oil on canvas

Today’s painting is an egret that I painted mostly with a brush but threw in a few palette knife strokes at the end just for kicks. Using the brush again feels pretty good. There’s a touch of excitement in it because the strokes are so different from what I’ve been used to. There’s also nostalgia. When I first started doing daily paintings in 2014, I only used a brush. This feels a little like visiting a childhood home.

In the Coach Bennett running advice I’ve been going through for a while now, he talks about not just doing the same run over and over again but mixing it up with different types of runs– long, short, speed, recovery, trails, roads, etc.  Me, I love a good, slow 5k along the beach. I do it a lot. 

I don’t think it would look like it much to an outsider, but I’ve really been trying to mix it up with my paintings this month. I’m using paper. I’m using brushes. I’m keeping things small but working on a variety of small sizes. I’m not running a mountainside marathon one day and a half mile sprint in the woods the next, but I’m trying to enjoy the exploration, the tools I have, and all the little gifts (of which there are many) that this annual January practice brings.