Let's start from the very beginning. I forgot to bring painting clothes on our holiday.* The only thing I don't mind getting paint on--and let's face it, my messy self often gets bedraggled and paint smeared whilst arting so this is a real concern--are my pajama shorts and matching tank top. Because we're staying in a hotel located in the middle of olive groves, I set out nonplussed in my PJs, even though I ran across a farmer yesterday on my morning scouting walk.
I should have, however, taken the time to equip myself with better footwear. In the Lebanese heat, I spend 3/4 of the year in flipflops. But these tall thistles I painted the other day are not the only poky plants around.
Lebanon abounds with flora intent on protecting itself from heat and herbivores. Stepping off the rutted dirt track was an invitation to laceration. On the track were thousands of ants, stocking up on thistle seeds, so I had to be careful of where I set up my easel.
Lebanese hunters like to shoot birds. Small birds. So at the crack of dawn, the first notes of birdsong barely begin when they are overcome by the gung-ho, echoing volley of huntsmen taking down their prey...or at least seeding the countryside with spent ammunition.** Ah, country living.
Wouldn't you know that this morning, when I was out just before dawn, it was overcast? There have not been clouds over the mountains in the east since we arrived. There I was, ready to use the first rays to pick my perfect spot, and not a sunbeam was to be seen. All that effort of early rising and preparation and no light.
Not to be daunted, I put a song on my phone and set up where my photos from the previous day showed would be a likely spot. Not sure anyone else would know this song, but you might like the lyrics. It begins like this:
"Fear Is A Liar" (Zach Williams)
When he told you you're not good enough
When he told you you're not right
When he told you you're not strong enough
To put up a good fight
When he told you you're not worthy
When he told you you're not loved
When he told you you're not beautiful
That you'll never be enough
Fear he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
Cause fear he is a liar...
So before I could get myself bummed about what might not go right, I gave that song a couple of listens and set to work.
The sun finally did come out; I didn't get shot; I only got bitten by one ant; and I got a painting in before breakfast. Well, almost in. I needed to step away from it and touch up a couple of things afterwards back at the room.
This is the limited color temperature palette of Yellow Ochre, Titanium White, French Ultramarine Blue, and Ivory Black on a repurposed oil painting paper. I think it is A4 (21x27cm) so not very big but big enough for this beginner.
It is muddy. It is begging for color. But it was an exercise in Getting Out There and Getting it Done. It was a challenge in observation and a crash course in What to Paint First. All in all, another fun time with the paint.
I used the remainder of what was on my palette to finish up a palette knife painting I had begun a couple of days before (also trying to use up the paint from scene in the first photo above). I don't know how I feel about palette knife painting (this being my first attempt at a landscape with it), but I do know I should have started with something simpler.
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*For my birthday, we are spending a week in the hills about an hour and half north of Beirut, not too far from sea or mountains. Will share pics later.
** This is maddening because it is not food they are after, but sport. 90% of the species they shoot here are protected in France. There are just some things that I refuse to write off as "acceptable cultural differences" and killing for fun is one of them.