"Flower Dance", 16x20"

"All real works of art look as though they were done in joy." - Robert Henri, The Art Spirit.

This past week or so, I've been searching for the joy, to no avail.  Days on end were spent painting, and each day ended with a thorough scraping.  I had nothing to show for my efforts.  I looked at my work at the end of the day, and saw no joy in the painting before me.  Rather than waste more time (and paint) trying to make something joyless look less so, I decided to scrap it all and start again.  And again.  And again.

Today, I pulled out a painting I had started months ago.  I started to fling paint at it with a palette knife, then I scraped through it and started again.  But this time, I'm happy to say, I saw the joy start to creep back in.  Instead of throwing it on the scrap heap, I'll post it in the hopes that you see a bit of joy in it too!