It has been a long time since I have finished a painting. Life gets busy and it gets hard to spend time in my studio. I let myself make excuses and I find myself believing them. Without a hard deadline, I just get stuck and can’t quite finish a painting.

So, I decided to find a call for entries (because it would have a deadline) and force myself to enter a new painting. I haven’t painted in so long, so in order to meet the criteria of the painting being made in the last three years, it was going to have to be something new. I set this goal several months ago…and then I procrastinated.

I couldn’t decide what to paint, but I had plenty of time and it would come to me. It didn’t. So, with one week until the deadline, I went into my folder of old reference photos and decided to re-do an old favorite.

When I was in school at RMCAD, I painted a close up of my lips coated in black lipstick. At that point in time, I didn’t spend very much time prepping my surface. That painting was actually the turning point for how much time and energy I put into the layers and layers of gesso and sanding. I loved how the painting turned out, but the canvas was kind of bumpy and could have looked so much better. This was my chance for redemption for that painting.

Today was the deadline for submitting artwork to the call for entries. I was up last night finishing my painting, and I filled out the entry this morning. It feels good to have finished an artwork. Now, I need to spend some time finding the next opportunity and set a new goal/deadline.

-M.