Daily Painting Practice- stay in the game - painting the North Woods

I think for me as an artist discouragement and persistence go hand in hand. Often my mind's eye sees the painting  I would like to paint, while my physical eyes reveal the painting that I actually produced. They hardly ever match and discouragement follows.

 That's where persistence must come in. People who fall off horses have quaint sayings that tell them  to
"get back in the saddle" and  sports failures  are told to "get back in the game". But what words of wisdom do we artists have when things  go wrong? "Wipe it off and start over?" ... Not very encouraging. nor very creative.

 I am convinced that words of wisdom don't really work with artists anyway. ( even though we love to hang slogans and quotes on our easels). What we really need is tough art love. What we need and what we do best with is being told the cold hard truth.....  "Painting is hard and  at some point every artist will want to quit." Don't you feel better?

I think someone needs to tell all wanna-be artists -  what comes with the territory. A warning label should be required  in every first  paint set and they should sell persistence pills at every art supply store.
Painting is hard.... but that fact takes nothing away from the enjoyment of doing it.  Quite the opposite.

 So, for all those  discouraged wanna be artist's ...  keep the paint on your brush...  step up to the easel....keep your eye on the horizon line and relax and enjoy pushing some paint.

 Back in the North woods and a little progress.  I am  trying something different with this painting.  Painting the entire foreground in shadow.  So as I am working on the background, I am trying to make sure the  darkest values of the background  stay  lighter than the lightest values in the foreground shadows. It's not an easy thing to  remember.

I'll need to adjust all the light areas in the foreground as I  proceed with the water. Slow going  but  I'll stick with it.

Oh,   I  came up with a slogan  for the easel.  The effort is always worth more than the results.