Yesterday was a bit of a crisis. Not a huge midlife crisis (any day now! ;) ) but one of those "I'm-exhausted-and-frustrated-and-I-don't-need-extra-helpings-of-stress" kind of crisis. I seriously wanted to paint a crab because I was feeling very crabby. I even looked at photos of crabs but couldn't find one that would inspire me. So, instead, I tried to work on a scene from this month's Virtual Paintout location (Isle of Man). I was going to paint the Laxey Wheel. In bits and pieces throughout the day, I did paint it. And it looks bad. Unblogably bad. I am probably going to throw it away.
When I realized there wasn't much to do about it, I put it away, made myself a cup of tea, wasted a few minutes on Facebook and Google Plus, and decided to switch gears and work on my Right Brain Business Plan instead. I could probably have spent the whole night doing that (it's pretty exciting at this point, and my head is about to burst from all the ideas). But then my kids would be up, all bright-eyed and energetic, and with no rest for me, it would be the beginning of another crabby day. So I took a bath instead. I love my jet tub. It's my favorite place in the whole house :). So there I was, lying in the tub, letting the hot water relax and de-stress me. Not reading, as I usually do, just letting go. And then I noticed that my kids' tub animals were arranged in an aesthetically pleasing composition on the other side of the tub. I had to sketch them.
And that's how I almost painted a crab.