Winter Doldrums and Using Technology while Painting

I always have a lack of creativity in winter. Not really depression, just painter's block. I have at least three of these each year, and don't get too worried when they hit.

I finally got the oil paints out last night. After searching the laptop for a photo reference, I found a great way to view the photo while painting! I recently bought a new flat screen tv for the studio. (Yes, I like to multi-task - paint with either a movie on, or a podcast or book-on-tape going. Not much of a music fan...). I wanted to use the new TV for projecting my reference photos. Originally, I was planning on just hooking up my laptop to the TV and using it like a projector using the VGA cable. Then I remembered this TV also has a USB port! DUH. I know this is very common on TVs these days, but didn't think about using this feature much before! WOW what a great way to see the photo. I just loaded a few photos onto my thumb drive and plugged it in the back of the TV, and the TV recognized the thumb drive, and I opened the folder to select a photo. Much better than printing out on paper. Now that I think about it, I need to explore using the HDMI ports between the TV and laptop. Hmmm......

Anyway....Back to painting! The TV is across the room, so it kept me from putting my nose right into the image to pick out details, but the clarity and brightness on that screen far surpassed just projecting the image directly from my laptop. With the image across the room, I painted more loosely - which is a goal.

Below are progress shots of the painting. Not too bad after months of using pastels instead of oils! This is a masonite board coated with gesso and lightly sanded. You may be able to see the lines of the gesso in the finished painting, which I enjoy seeing as it adds movement to the scene. Forgive the glare from the wet paint.

"Across the Pond", oil on board, 8x10