The Replacement

The Replacement Light Bulb ACEO Acrylic Painting on Canson Paper. 2.5 X 3.5 Inches.
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Ok, so today's daily painting has a story. It is probably only interesting to me, but I am going to talk about it anyway.

This Daily Painting concept has really helped me get past yet another of my motivation blocks, forcing me to paint every day. I find, though, that I spend more time thinking about WHAT to paint, than the actual painting process.

I rearrange my art table, I clean the studio, I organize the paint tubes. And today, I had to replace the burned out light bulb on my little table lamp. I sat staring blankly at the spent light bulb laying on the art table, and was intrigued by the shape and simplicity of it. I wondered if I could paint this little object, not in a realistic style, but a more loose impressionistic technique, and actually make it look like a light bulb.

It wasn't until I was quite a ways into the actual painting, that I realize that the white highlight on the surface of the bulb, was actually a reflection of the lamp and the replacement bulb.

That poor spent bulb. To be immortalized in a painting, but the focus of that painting, is your replacement. Life is like that sometimes.