Getting high without drugs

The Shed

oil on masonite 10x8

I started "The Shed"  during a plein air workshop and framed it last night.  Being new to oils and battling the heat of the summer day, I wanted to quit before I even started but then I might miss an opportunity to get "high".  Sometimes when I pick up a paintbrush and everything flows, I get into what artists call "the zone."  A feeling of elation comes over me and stays with me even if the painting doesn't turn out.  I remember feeling that as I was painting this old shed.  If others only knew of this high I know there would be more artists and less drugs.  I wish I felt it every time I paint but I don't.  Sometimes I feel like I've never painted before and that a child could do better than I can.  Fortunately it's the memory of times that I've been in the zone that keeps me going.  Who knows, maybe the next brush stroke will bring on that same feeling and there aren't too many things in life that can compete with the experience of being in "the zone."    So as the old year closes and the new year begins, I paint expectantly, hoping to get high once again.