Slowing Down but not Stopping

I confess, I have had the luxury to do art about 8 hours a day for a few weeks. I painted. I studied. I painted some more. Going by the it-takes-21-days-to-form-a-habit rule, I am almost there. But sometimes real life demands our attention. And sometimes you hit a road block in the learning process and need to slow it down as well. I need to take a small break.
One of the real life things I need to do is paint this fire place. Look how disgustingly ugly it is.

Here is a work in progress.  I may benefit from slowing down a little anyway. In general, it's better to not over think and over state watercolors. The advice of one painter I've been reading is, "get in, make a mark, then get out." (I don't remember which one, I've been reading so many.) Good advice for me. When I start trying to "fix" things I end up making them worse. I will really benefit from working this new piece slowly.

I did use this same reference for an earlier painting I did last week. It was going along well. in fact I still like part of the old painting,which is why I cropped it, creating a smaller painting. (see below)

But then I panicked. I made painted statements I wanted to take back. I scrubbed, but then the dreaded mud appeared. My excitement about my early efforts, soon turned to disappointment. That's when I knew I needed a break.

Vermont Woods in Spring     10X7.5