There are few things I love more than oil paints. I sometimes try to steer myself away from them because they’re sticky, slow to dry, and they smell. But there’s nothing like them. Today I allowed myself to dig in with gusto. I made a big mixed media painting with an acrylic background and some luscious layers of oil paint for warmth, texture, and depth on top.
I also did a little bit of writing. The follow-up to The Adventures of Miss Vulpe is going well. I watched two movies recently that really inspired me: Corsage and Spencer, both about royal women feeling trapped. I have no interest whatsoever in royal families and such, but the aesthetics of both movies were flawless, and the way they conveyed the feelings of claustrophobia and the desire to break out and make a claim to personhood were something I found compelling. The characters made me think of Betty in Storms of Malhado, but also of Louise in The Adventures of Miss Vulpe. I’ve been toying with giving her more of a voice, with writing a few chapters from her perspective in the sequel. Today I started that and it felt good. One of those writing days when I almost couldn’t stop.
