What can you call "Painting Time"?

It's currently cold and foggy here in San Francisco, but I know it's going to be HOT HOT HOT in Alameda for the 4th. I'm already looking forward to the cold watermelon.

As I continue to think about the painting I plan to do this week (based on the July 4th celebration in Alameda) I am reminded of the many painters I meet at the market who talk about NOT painting. While it's true some of them no longer have time, most are not giving credit to the time they spend thinking about painting in general, and a painting, in specific.

Most of my painting process takes place in my head, and very little of it is actual "brush time". The analytical part of the painting is 90%, for me. I sometimes spend weeks thinking about composition, light and dark, color, who knows what, and never even go into my painting studio, but when I sit down to paint, I have a good idea of what I plan to do, and how I plan to approach it. Not having to make those kind of decisions on the fly allows me to let the essence of the subject flow through me and "speak to me" for lack of a better description. It makes it not a thinking thing, but rather a feeling thing.

I call any time that I am thinking about painting "painting time".

View more of my work at heidiwyckoff.com