Futility

July 14, 2018. No progress has been made in skills or technique. I get points for doggedness. This blue building began because I was going to sleep in Dick and Debbie Cooter's neighbor's yard and Dick had said to me, "when you see the ugly garage, turn in there and camp wherever you want." This is the ugly garage in water soluble pencil, a bit of watercolor and a touch of ink. Now that I look at it the flowers are a bit regimental yet still juvenile. 20 minutes.

July 15, 2018. Dawdled my way up North Shore and eventually ended up in Grand Marais where I would head in up the Gunflint. Stopped to buy socks at the Ben Franklin where they have the best selection of Darn Tough socks anywhere, say hi to Kat, and say hi and chat with Rita (Kat's mom).

Kat's Rita reminds me in a few ways of my Rita and not  just in name. Kat's Rita was telling me about the guy who walked her down to Black Beach and she said she just kept talking and talking to the guy who was a stranger and my Rita could do that too. Kat's Rita showed me some photos of her recent work and some photos she had done of acrylic and pastels. Tomorrow would be my Rita's 84th birthday. I asked Kat's Rita if I could give her a hug before I left. Sort of needed a mom hug and a mom named Rita hug was a bonus.

I should have asked Rita how she got the pastels to stick to the acrylic but I can do that some other time. I tried putting pastels over the ugly painting I did when I got to the cabin but it didn't help much or at all or maybe made it worse. Time to do this: too long. Go back to try to make short work of the work. This is supposed to be the grasses at the edge of the lake.

Then, instead of switching brushes to kick start my brain into some other level of ineptness, I switched format and went with pencil drawing enhanced or ruined by water soluble colored pencil and graphite and then wiped off and water-colored for the fine result of muddiness and lack of detail. Now that I look at it I think maybe I should have used hot-press paper instead of cold-press. Or maybe I have that backwards. I cropped off my catty comments of the day that were on the side of this masterpiece.