The In-Between. April 17, 2026

This time last year, I had been doomscrolling via social media in a fashion that was degrading my mental health. It greatly increased my amount of anger, frustration, fear, and helplessness. The algorithm knows what each person wants and what will keep them attached to the feed. I am no different than anyone and I am just as vulnerable to those tricks. I knew things were slipping and yet I didn't do much about it until a phone call with my brother. It resulted in both of us bawling our eyes out because I was critical and judgy, entirely my lashing out at him for no good reason. It was a wake up call for me, realizing I had been pushed to an edge and a lot needed to change, and it started with me addressing a large variety of things in my life.

I quit/deleted social media services, something I had wanted to do for years. I have doubled down on my relationship with my brother and we text almost daily now. I got divorced and am fixing to live by myself for the first time. Ex-hubby and I are still in contact and despite his pain, he has been kind to me throughout this process. I have lost a few folks along the way, but for the most part I have been supported, and I am incredibly grateful. I have a new romantic partner and my life has completely shifted from where it was. Call it a mid-life crisis, I guess. As a result of these things, my creative side suffered for a while. But don't worry, this is a blog about art--and we will get to that. The reason I mention any and all of this is because sometimes I went days, weeks, years, without paying enough attention to the time and space that exists in-between big life events. Big changes. That liminal space in-between I have painfully realized is also very important. I admit, everyone experiences this stuff differently. One of my weaknesses is that I don't always do a good job of harnessing my time because I get easily distracted.

In between life stuff and figure studies stuff, I finally have gotten back on the plein air horse. I attempted a painting last week, but it was far too cold and windy.

I liked how the flower pots were at different angles, the black light pole, and the boat pulled up onto the bank. Due to the weather and lack of consistent sunlight, I did a value study and that was all. It was too cold, even with my gloves on! A value study is a quick sketch where three to four shades of black, grey, and white are used to simplify the image and for plein air painters it can capture light and shadows. These become reference images as the shadows move with the sun.

I have gaps in my process and in my skills because I am out of practice. In the last week, I started getting myself back to the basics. What lies in-between the "good works?" well, it is practice. Value studies, still life scenes, and being reminded that there was something so special about the way art-related books were written before the internet became so accessible for video content. I have been scooping up art-related books from thrift stores but not always making the time to really sit with them. This last week, as part of experiencing the in-between, I became very good friends with Patricia Monahan's Light in Watercolor. Thanks to the internet you can find a copy online here for free: https://archive.org/details/lightinwatercolo0000mona

What rules and techniques have changed since 1995? None. This very engaging book really helped me get back into the mindset to paint. So I went back out to the same area I went to last week. This time, though, I took a different angle of the same scene.

Starting on the left is my value study. It is a good practice in plein air painting to do this step and to be honest I have lacked the discipline to do it in the past. I want to be more focused and do things right now that I am sort of starting over with new habits. The center image is the pencil drawing before adding paint. I struggled to get things placed just right, but I remembered the trick of measuring with my pencil held out in front of me to space out objects. Let's not get too fancy, it's vibes math, but it works! The right image shows the piece after a first pass of layered color, mostly wet-on-wet.

I took a break! A forced in-between! I walked away, sat down (I usually stand for easel plein air painting), and looked at other stuff for a while. This can help reset the scene. However, I am so rusty at this and my light sources have moved rather significantly since the value study. I needed to reassess this during the break.

I got back to it and 45 minutes later I was starting to overwork the leaves in the damn tree. See those ugly green splotches? You didn't see them until I pointed it out? Maybe? No, ugh, I almost got it but I started to veer into overworking territory. Doesn't matter! Finished, signed it, and now it is the first official plein air of 2026.

As always, thanks for reading, thanks for the support, and I hope that wherever this may find you, I urge you to embrace the in-between.