Morning focus

Beginning each day at sunrise with a cup of coffee in hand, I head directly to my studio where I can focus my waking brain on the canvas waiting on my easel. A work in progress energizes my senses even before the caffeine enters my bloodstream as my eyes focus on content, color, and the direction this painting will take me this day.
By the time the morning light fills my studio, my pallet is wet with fresh oil paint that I'm rapidly mixing and blending into the cool and warm colors needed for my brush.
On a good painting day, my focus remains concentrated and smoothly flowing from brain to brush hand without hesitation or particular awareness of any extraneous elements of the world outside. Hours pass without notice as the painting takes on a life of its own, becoming the image I envisioned while the canvas was still blank and raw.
Bad painting days are those when focus is broken and the flow of my brush never connects with where my brain tries to force it to go. Concentration is lost with the ringing of the phone, honking horns outside my window, or nagging thoughts of my personal life.
Over the years, I've learned certain tricks to keep those bad painting days away for the most part, but still they make their way in now and then....defeating me in frustration as I clear my pallet and clean my brushes for another day.