Too Much, Too Soon?

I have not posted lately because I have been, as many others, consumed with the election, the economy and for me, painting for juried shows. The recent show required the entries to be 8” x 10”. Usually I love to work in a small format. I enjoy the control I have over the space, the composition errors are easier to see, but for some reason I struggled with this challenge. Having won first place last month at this gallery for one of my abstracts, my natural inclination was to follow up on it. However, the point of the 8 x 10 show was to make the creations more affordable for Holiday purchases but my abstract paintings are rarely bought for that reason. Instead, I entered the stone still life I blogged about earlier, a quick watercolor impression of a flower I painted last year on Yupo material (a plastic painting surface) and an impulsive experiment on a handmade paper designed for bookmakers. With sales in mind, the painting was an impressionistic landscape, (which I failed to photograph). Unbelievably I won first place for it! I was unable to attend to awards ceremony and oddly enough, honored as I was to receive the award, I felt a sense of embarrassment. Two winners in a row seemed unfair to the other club members who entered. Honestly, I would have been disappointed if my work had not received some sort of recognition, so my embarrassment came as big surprise! I have decided not to enter the next two shows. With the holidays and winter coming it really is not that hard to do.