This past weekend I went painting en plein air with my friend Asem and ran into some frustration.  Sometimes a painting doesn't go well and there's nothing you can do except to learn something from it.  The weather was beautiful regardless and we had a fun time hiking to our painting spot.  If you live around Bergen County, NJ, then check out our PCD En Plein Air events that I host.
 With the frustration of yesterday, I realized the importance of painting what you enjoy and what you're inspired by.  I did a painting today of a scene that I've wanted to paint for a while and it came out great.  While I was painting, I was thinking about a Sargent painting, Venetian Glass Workers (1880/2).  I've seen the painting a few times in person in Chicago and it always stuck with me.

  I'm also proud to announce that our Pushing Colored Dirt fall 2020 courses are open for registration.  I'm teaching a bunch of different adult courses and you can check out all the awesome instructors that are a part of our crew.  If you have questions you can also email me at [email protected]
​  I'll be writing again soon because I haven't written enough recently.  Have an awesome week.

  Hey everyone, I wanted to share a post because I was painting today and also making a birthday which resulted in a big revelation for me.  I was painting one of my favorite scenes which is the flower pots outside my house and I ended up being really feel proud of the resulting painting.  I even had a rabbit pose for a few minutes in our front lawn so I captured him as a blob of impasto on the canvas.  
  So I've been painting and drawing a lot recently and I'm currently working on a commission of two cats.  All this work and practice has opened my eyes to some truths about my process.  I used to think that a good way of working was to pretend that everything that I painted was as a commission.  This put a certain amount of positive pressure on myself to do the best work possible.  I still agree with this idea in principle, but I've shifted it to just do the best work possible for myself.  
  I've always put a lot of pressure on myself to absolutely do the best work possible and I've reminded myself that doing my best work is for me and not for someone else.  Even if I never get another commission again (which obviously I hope doesn't happen) I would still do my absolute best.  I've got one life to live (that I know of) and I want to be damn proud of it.
  Another thing to keep in mind is that different projects call for different procedures, but your natural style will emerge regardless of the procedural execution; by this, I mean that whether you paint fast, slow, carefully, or slipshod--your natural essence will still emerge.  This is something that I've found through many experiments.
  I have to remember to share more on my site, but I've been posting a ton on my instagram @ericsantoli and I've been busy with Julian over at Pushing Colored Dirt, so forgive my latency and don't confuse it for lethargy.