After over three years, today I finally got an improvised studio set up at my boyfriend's place.  I'm convinced that the reason I cannot possibly follow a football game on tv is because of my very visual nature of perception.  I cannot locate, nor is it visibly stimulating for me to find the damn football. It's brown.  Make it fuchsia, or some other stand out color, and maybe I'll try.  But, ultimately, my eyes (and curiosity) can't help but focus on other visually interesting things, like... the coach's tiny little plastic baggie that covers the microphone on his headset, or the fact that some players wear long sleeve, some short, or wonder why there's a mouthpiece stuffed into the grill of some player's helmet.  It's just too much.  So many distractions, so many interesting things to look at, not to mention the colorful uniforms and the numerous graphics strewn all across the screen.  How can anyone expect me to follow this game, which is complicated already in and of itself?

Luckily, I was smart enough to pack up a couple of works in progress and all my pastel supplies to bring to my boyfriend's house while he is 100% dedicated to watching the playoffs. And so, finally, after over three years I finally have a place to create while the music plays, the fire roars, and the game is on tv in the background.  Finally.

It's the New Year. Yet I'm working on two old pieces started over a year ago. They aren't dead pieces needing resurrection, just simply in good working order set aside to make room for other more pressing work, and they hadn't made it back onto my easel until last night.

I work in cycles. I imagine a lot of artists do. I like keeping two good pieces of each medium, oil and pastel, going at the same time. I paint, going from one piece to another, then if I have a good flow going, I switch to pastels, also working on two drawings simultaneously.

Currently, I am working on the lunar moth and dragonfly oil pieces. But then I wanted to get two drawings underway. These two canvas ballet drawings got put aside last year so that I could concentrate on Nutcracker work. But now they can get right back onto my easel where they belong. In a way, it is a continuum, just like the ballet that these two drawings are based on.

Continuum is a ballet choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. I love the shapes, line and shadows in the interaction of the dancers. This is one of two drawings I am making on canvas primed with a transparent ground so that the raw color of the canvas shows through.

I am experimenting with canvas and different grounds after reading much about Degas' techniques. Next, I want to try a new casein fixative that I've read is supposed to be similar to what Degas used. The interesting thing with these pieces for me is that I inverted the stretched canvas so that the stretchers are on the outside, which I do often with my oil painting, but not for drawing until recently. This allows the work to have a built in frame that I can use as part of the piece, making it appear like a cross between my oil paintings and my usual drawings on paper.

I intend to use a decorative, archival paper with concentric spirals on the frame to hint at the title of the ballet. I'm optimistic that I'll be very happy with the final result. And so I am glad that my working process has finally allowed for these drawing to get back into my own "continuum".