Muscle Memory

 I am a science buff and I've been reading  about muscle memory. I read up on muscle memory and found this paragraph in a Popular Science article.

 "Neurons inside your muscles play a strong role too, of course, but [the pattern of activity](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16290273?dopt=Abstract) that helps you perform the same action over and over happens inside your brain. It only feels like something your muscles are doing on their own." I am grateful for this muscle memory that my brain tells my hands that they can still be steady enough to do some art. 

 That is the great thing about being an artist. There are no real limitations except the ones we place on ourselves in our own minds. Over the years we evolve with physical changes and our taste changes in color and design. As a young painter my color saturation was intense in my work. As I mature as a painter, I have subdued my palette quite a bit and am more interested in value and contrast, moving closer to a Notan approach of values transition.

 I was a long time Plein Air addict, but have become most comfortable in the studio, due to health restrictions. No matter, anytime I can paint in or outdoors, I am grateful and lucky! I still get out in cool weather to do a few paintings. 

 

I hope to paint and draw the rest of my life, however long that is. The gift of creativity is precious and should be honored and cared for, not taken lightly by artists or society. Think about the fact that a painting is done once in a lifetime. Owning it, the only one of its kind is very special. That is why I don't make reproductions of my work. There should only be one.

 

Life and science are wonderful for country painters…