Riding the Wave, 21 & 22. Of Art and Closures.

Yesterday, I turned my attention to creating another portrait. It's been a while, and it took quite a while just to get the underdrawing correct. Even so, it still has some lines that are not to my liking, so today I'll have to fix them before applying color. Drawing is an acquired skill for me; I wasn't born with the happy luck of being able to draw lines in such a way as to get them correct on the first try. I had to learn to see objects as intersecting lines lying at different angles. While it's not as necessary to be completely accurate when doing the underdrawing of a landscape, a portrait has to have the lines in their exact position. Otherwise, it won't look like the person you're trying to paint, and there will always be a niggling sense of something being wrong. 

Applying color is much more easy. It's merely learning to see in light and shadows, and understanding their overall color. Highlights can be bluish in natural light, or purple. Shadows can have a contrasting color to make them darker, not just black. A painting becomes a dance of colors that attracts the eye and makes the scene real, even when it's not completely photo-like.

On a level closer to earth, I am having to adjust my shopping excursions. The township of Boiro, where I do my Saturday shopping, and where there are small stores I tend to frequent, has been closed as of midnight last night, because of an alarming increase in contagion. Great. Another thought that crosssed my mind, was that, if the surrounding townships remain closed, I won't have many options to buy the Christmas seafood. Even if it's just the three of us, I would like to look around. But, now I can't go to Boiro, and Vilagarcía is still closed. The only options of a decent seafood market is Padrón or Santiago, which opened last week. My township has a tiny market and you either buy whatever they have, or you go elsewhere. I go elsewhere. 

Most of the contagion seems to stem from the canning factory that employs hundreds of people, some from as far away as Santiago. It's one of the few companies that boomed during the pandemic. Everyone buys canned fish to have in the back of the pantry. During the lockdown, supermarkets had a limit of six tins per customer, once they started to reappear on the shelves. A neighbor of ours down the road is in quarantine with the virus, as is her entire family. She works at the factory, and she got it from a co-worker who had gone somewhere on vacation. 

During this long weekend, all the regions have had their borders closed, precisely to try to stem contagions due to travelling. Of course, many people left earlier to avoid the closing, and will go back after they reopen on Wednesday. Supposedly, over Christmas, New Year's, and Epiphany, regions will be closed again, allowing travel only for people who are going to visit family. Why doesn't Spain do like Italy, and tell everyone they can't get together this year? The rates of contagion seem to be going down, but after this weekend, and by the beginning of January, I bet things will be flaming again. Third wave, here we come.

The weather has turned cold, now. Temperatures don't go much above the 40'sF/7ºC during the day. Our wood stove this year doesn't want to warm us as well as other years, I don't know why. There are rain showers coming from the north, that are snow at higher altitudes in the interior. I doubt we'll see any down here, though. With each passing year, the chance of seeing snow where we live diminishes. And snow is the only interesting thing winter can bring us. It's a long six months to May.

Life continues.