J.R. Secor, Painter of Southwest Visions: May 2022

Sunday, May 1, 2022

APRIL 2022

Happy first of May! I'll be turning 82 this month - WOW! That's OLD! But I am very happy and grateful to be able to say that I'll be turning 82 this month! To celebrate that, I gave away six paintings by lottery draw to appreciators of my work. It felt good to give presents for my birthday.

April was a strange month for me - I had difficulty sleeping and would be awake almost every night after just a few hours sleep. I'd come out into the living room, sit in my comfy chair, and watch artist videos on YouTube. Sometimes I'd fall asleep again, but sometimes not for long. I was also very unsteady on my feet, and twice my left leg just gave out and down I went!

This past week I went to my chiropractor, who specializes in cervical readjustments using sound waves. He thought that my vagus nerve might be compressed, and did an adjustment with that in mind. And you know what? I've slept through 7 to 8 hours every night since. And I'm much steadier on my feet, though that's not really saying much!

Despite all that, my art month was quite productive. Toward the end of the month, I did a couple of pieces in water-soluble oils on 11" by 14" linen canvas panel. Here they are:

Mesa on the Horizon Zion Watchman

I love using WSO, but they take a LONG time to dry. For someone who paints as often as I do, that creates a storage problem. If I used WSO every day, the whole house would be filled with paintings drying. So I've decided that I will do a WSO of the month - just one painting per month on very large paper. That will take longer to paint so I will get to enjoy the process a little longer and won't build up inventory.

On a daily basis, I'll keep painting with my SOHO acrylics, which I love too! Here is a selection of work I did in April using the SOHO acrylics. You can see I explored a number of different styles, techniques, and subject matter.