Exercise is good for you?

At the moment, stitching has gone out the window and it's the daily painting project that's holding my interest. It's extremely pleasurable to apply paint to canvas - and to mix it to the right shade and consistency, or what I hope is "right" ... consistency is empirical, but shade is tricky, and often my mind goes blank when trying to figure out what colour to use next. I make a stab at it, or choose at random, and then the "picture" goes off in a new direction. Which is all part of the fun.

Doing this "exercise" is proving to be an eye-opener. So far the canvases haven't had subjects, but I'm starting to want ideas for Real Things To Paint ... and as a result, my photos are going in a new direction. These women sitting in companiable silence, for instance - I like the arrangement of chairs, the dark shapes, the bits of bright colour, the subtle colours ... with a tweak or two in the composition, it could be a "subject"...

Not yet - there are still many brushes to try out, to see how they work in applying the paint, and what kinds of lines they make, and how much paint is needed on the brush. Technical details. I'm keeping it simple, continuing to play. Actually tackling a "subject" seems too complicated. But my eye is taking them in. Certain poems provide possibilities. Or ... why not copy an old master - how "impossible" would that be?

That's one type of exercise ... here's another -

That's for inspiration ... you have to start with the basic stuff. There are plenty of beginners tap videos ...  the simplest move is "toe, toe, heel, heel" (not for nothing is that called Cramp Step!). Follow along with this one and you'll be getting good exercise. How wonderful to have this in a format you can pause and watch again and again till it comes right...

Here's the Nicholas Brothers at an even younger age -

The piece is called Pie Pie Black Bird - something's cooking, all right...

Some years later ...

From the 1941 musical "Sun Valley Serenade" - the other dancer is Dorothy Dandridge.