Painting in a group

Recently read a statement from Genn that said "painting is deeply lone

ly, unglamorous task of tolerating oneself long enough to push something out." It set me to thinking about being up in my Treehouse Studio for hours on end, sometimes even forgetting to eat and drink and go to the bathroom and certainly never speaking to anyone except myself. I kind of love that experience. And, then I decided to get some graduate courses in college in the painting direction. This is where Genn says interpersonal aggravation sets in, interest flags, and quality becomes intermittent. But, for me, I love the interaction and the sharing of ideas. It is a pretty long drive, and I am utilizing that drive to listen to some really good "books on disc". At the moment "War and Peace", all 47 discs, is underway. Never would I have read it. Now the traffic jams and I just sit back and enjoy. Here is a piece done in the midst of people. True, my professors are after me to go to abstract. I just respond that I work in abstract realism. And, that is really true that my beginnings are totally abstractions of the set up or landscape or figure or floral.