I’m getting up these days full of energy only to bog down when it’s time to paint. But I tell myself that if I just sit down and start painting I’ll find myself engaged. So even though I don’t paint for long stretches at a time, I’m slowly making progress.

I know I’ll have to darken many of the shadows, but I’ve moved on to mapping out the darks and lights of the beet leaves. The more I get on the canvas, the more I can see where adjustments have to be made.

I think the most important thing for me in painting is liking the image. I will occasionally sketch in a whole canvas only to decide I don’t like the subject. With this image I sat with it a long time, even painting a different image, before deciding I really liked this one. I have made a change to the background as it is all black in the photo. I will decide after it’s nearly done whether I’ll leave it this way or choose the deep contrast pitch black. I seem to do so many paintings with black, that I thought it was time for a change.