What Could Painting an Hour a Day Bring?

Taking the Painting in Small Daily Bites

He’ll tell you he has three books out, and then he’ll tell you how he wrote them–that he was working a job, he had four days a week he could be home for an hour and fifteen minutes.  After he ate lunch, he’d have an hour and fifteen minutes to work, four days a week.  He said, “Every year and a half, that should be a book.”  And darn, if he didn’t do a book every year-and-a-half, just writing like that.

Bruce Dobler, University of Pittsburgh, talking about Bob Downs, author

The above interview was taken from one of my favorite portions of the film “Stone Reader.”  When I am confronted with an author who has found a way to crank out novels on his lunch hour, I realize that I too should be able to put out watercolors on my schedule.  I teach four subjects at the high school full time, then six semester hours at a local university in the evenings.  With the semester now in the midst of its third week, I still haven’t really found my groove in this new lifestyle, yet I have made myself a promise that I would not use my job as an excuse to leave the watercolor studio.  So, if I can only muster an hour a day, I’ll do that until I find a way to open the time window wider.

One thing has not changed–it is the act of watercoloring that gives me a reason to smile, that puts the wind in my sails, that gives me something to look forward to each day.  The daily pace I now know in the educational endeavor would have found me in despair by now.  Finding quality time to grade, to prep for classes, and still sleep at night and eat regularly has not been easy, but still doable.  And in the meantime, I have continued to paint, and have found joy in those moments.  This is going to work after all, I’m confident.

Thanks always for reading.  Talk to you tomorrow . . .

I paint in order to remember.

I journal when I feel alone.

I blog to remind myself that I am not alone.

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