Yesterday I finished an odd study of a pair of brown shoes. I’ve been putting some thought into this subject for the past few weeks, and decided to go ahead and give it a try. The suede finish defied my abilities to sculpt form and depth, as it seemed to just flatten out with any reflected light. It was a good exercise in understanding some different qualities of transition, but I’m not sure if it ended as a strong piece. Today I attempted to carve out a small study of a single banana. I did a tiny study of a banana about a year ago, which some people felt was successful. I remember at a gallery opening overhearing one angry patron saying “I really wanted that damn banana”, so I’ll take that as a compliment of some sort. On a larger scale I couldn’t find enough cues to help suggest the depth and mass of this subject. A tiny scrubbed out study can be adequate, but I wound up scraping out my day’s effort with this larger version. Usually I’ll find some value in even the more futile of struggles, but I decided to cut my losses and play in the snow with Frank while the sky cleared for a beautiful sunset after almost 24 hours of snowfall. Aside from having a fairly difficult painting session, it was a lovely day in the snowstorm.