Today I took it into my head to approach my painting efforts by “painting the things in front of me” as they say, so looking round the studio here, I spotted a very colorful pair of pliers sticking out from a tool bag  which is still lying on the floor after a recent spate of DIY.   I set myself the task of painting it in one sitting in order to push my observation skills rather than trying to “construct a picture” so it forces me to just paint the tonal values of the subject in front of me as I find them.  I’m not used to painting this way, so I was very surprised how tiring I found it, despite the fact that it’s a tiny canvas.  Anyway it’s done now, and as I wash the brushes, I see another blank 6×6 canvas “looking” at me and as I say that, I also see there are more tools lying around………… who knows, tomorrow is another day!