How many times did I think that I'm done, and I wasn't. Many times. This painting is a great example of how "adventurous" and long a creative journey can be.

Today I woke up at 5:40 am and by 6:20 I was in the studio. Since the beginning of the year I completely changed my working schedule and it's been very beneficial for me. I used to work until midnight, sometimes even longer, and wake up after 9am. I was tired most of the time but still pushed the grind.

This year, I go to bed around 10pm and I wake up around 6 am. The total hours of sleep did not change, it's still around 7 hours, but the fact of going to sleep before midnight benefited greatly my body clock and subsequently my energy level.

I am also very diligent with my breathing exercises in the morning. I do 4 rounds of bhastrika pranayama - if you're not familiar with it, you can watch a short demonstration here:

then one round of push-ups with no air in my lungs (holding the exhale at the furthermost point), then one set of pull ups on a bar that we have in the door frame and off I go to cold shower. This gives me a way stronger energy rush than coffee (also keeps me fit). But I still love my coffee from JJ bean on the corner of my block and I'm happy they open at 6am :)

But back to the painting that I wanted to show you guys today.

I first painted this 6x4feet original in 2015 and I called it "Tree of Knowlege"

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For fellow metric system people who have no idea how long is a foot, you can get a better idea of the size from this picture. I am European myself, and I had no idea about the totally unnecessarily complicated so called "Imperial system" before I moved to Canada....I call it BS system:)

First version of this painting under way...

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I liked the result to be honest, but I put it aside for a year and half and one fine day, while looking at it, I realized I want to change it. And that's exactly what I did.

I called the second version th "Angel swing" and you can see why...

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More detailed picture here...

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Now you know why I called it Angel swing.

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I liked that version too, but I let it sit for another year. I felt that it wasn't still quite THE final version. I wasn't too happy about the sky to be completely honest.
And so the fall of 2017 came and I had a big show in November. I was going through my inventory and saw the Angel swing smiling at me. I knew the time for the final version came.

After what I went through in 2017, I knew it had to be a battle ofdarkness and light. ...

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Can you see the "invisible" hands wrapped around the sun? If you do, big kudos!

I called this third version "Touch from Heaven" ...

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And I feel that this is indeed THE final version of it.

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And this is where this 3 years Odyssey of this painting ended. It is indeed the final version of it, I can feel it in my gut.
I do not regret having to repaint to so many times and spending so much time on it. Every time it taught me a lesson.

Lesson of letting go. Lesson of allowing. Lesson of acceptance.

Thank you for reading, commenting, upvoting and resteeming!

<3

Much Love to all of you,

Jan
follow @jankasparec

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