Moving on from Mme Z

I turned the easel to the wall. I didn’t look at the portrait of Mme Z for a whole week.

When I did look again, I was disappointed. I liked the bright colors, and believe it or not I liked the hair, but there were areas in the face and neck that needed to be smoothed out further. On the other hand, one can work a painting to death. One minute it’s almost there, the next it’s been ruined because you’ve pushed it too far.

I’d already been working on Mme Z for over a month and decided to give the portrait a rest. I was bored and had another canvas I was eager to get to -- this one of a friend of mine, Debra, that I’d snapped on my iPhone. It was the fourth in a series that came from a casual shot rather than a formal, planned photograph.