Then this happened…

Oh, the horror.  I know.  I look at it and several choice lines from “Carrie” pop in my head.

So, here’s the thing: I hated the first version.  I did.  Her left arm was too short, one leg was inexcusably thicker than the other, and her vagina (well, her groin I mean, not her actual birth canal) looked weird.  Can’t have that.  Now she’s covered in what looks like blood, but at least her extremities are getting sorted.

I used my hate as an excuse to paint the next version of her using slow-dri medium.  I’ve never used it before so, of course, instead of doing it the right way I mixed 1 part water with 1 part slow-dri, tossed it in a spray bottle and hoped for the best.  The best didn’t come, but I don’t have proof in photos.  More on the slow-dri debacle later.  For now enjoy Carrie.

It paints again…

I didn’t stop forever, just for a while. I finished the Alice painting, which I will post once its owner gets her sexy mitts on it. In the meantime, here’s some weird shit I’m working on. I’m frustrated with it because, well, look at it. It’s a frustrating thing. I suppose that’s why it’s an in-progress picture and not a voila-done picture.

I don’t know what I’m saying. It’s been a weird few days. I’m out.

Some slight progress…

Added shadows and highlights.  And polka dots!

Grandma loves Rockwell…

“So, have you painted anything weird lately?” my Grandma asks during one of our recent phone conversations.  It put a massive smile on my face that I’m sure she could hear and I told her that I haven’t painted anything weird, but I’ve certainly drawn some odd things.  She laughed and carried on with the conversation.

My grandmother loves Norman Rockwell and, while I was growing up and my artistic sensibilities revealed themselves (much to everyone’s horror), she would often let me know how nice his work was and how I should be doing that instead of “that weird stuff”.  I appreciated her enjoyment of his work and other people’s work that was similar, but I have to say I always felt a tinge of rejection when comparisons were made and what I “should” do wasn’t in line with what I felt.

Fast forward a couple decades and here we are, her asking me what weird things I’m up to.  Progress.

Story time: Many, many years ago, my very talented Uncle Ray painted Norman Rockwell’s “Puppy Love” on the wall of a local diner.  After his untimely death, the owners of the diner cut the painting out of the wall, framed it, and gave it to my Grandma.  The painting sat at the very top of a hutch that held her bell collection, overlooking her living room.  A couple years ago, Christmas Eve, her house caught fire.  It was early morning, around 2 a.m., she lost nearly everything including that painting.  Because she has a habit of being everyone’s favorite person (she’s quite lovely), the town and family pulled together, raised money for her, donated their time, skills, money, rebuilt the inside of her house, gave her furniture, and about a year later she was able to move back in.  My Aunt has done an incredible job with the interior design, giving her a new look — still, there are things Grandma misses. 

Since I found out the painting was destroyed, I’ve been thinking about trying to paint as closely as a I can another one for her, but put it off for well over a year because, frankly, I have zero confidence.  I finally decided to just suck it up and at least try.  It hasn’t been pretty.  I won’t be able to make it as good as my Uncle’s was.  Certainly won’t come close to Rockwell.  But I’m trying and I’m not doing anything weird to it!  That’s the most important thing, I suppose.  And I’m perfectly fine with that.

So, wish me luck!  I need it!
Happy New Year!

Beginning…

Progressing…

Back to work…

Every year (or multiple times per year) I decide it’s a great idea to revamp my life. By that I mean my work and all that’s related. Perhaps it’s not the wisest decision, but refreshers are good, especially for a mind becoming stagnant.

Four pieces were completed at the beginning of January for a play. As soon as they were done and shipped out, I paused to look around my studio and realized that it had become horribly chaotic. Paint tubes scattered, tiny shreds of paper, dirty brushes, not one surface was bare, including the floor. I did what I could, which was to walk away from it for a bit over a week. It was not a relaxing time because all I could think about was getting that area in order so I could get back to work. I had been so focused on those four pieces that when they were done, I felt lost.

I finally forced myself to clean (pics to come). I’ve found that even with this clear space, my brain isn’t working the way it needs to. The empty space is in my head, not in my studio. I’m uninspired!

While I continue to draw and paint, I figured I would update this blog and post a pic of one of the paintings. If you have thoughts, inspiration, motivation, anything, tell me. Share your brains.

Unrequited | 8″ x 11″ | acrylic on canvas

And it’s done…

I’m not sure how I feel about the finished product. I do know that I’ve fallen in love with Golden soft gel medium, though. So…hooray for love!

I think the bristol was a good idea, along with the canvas. I needed more coats of paint on the bristol, but it seems like it made more sense for the ravens than the canvas did, due to its smooth texture allowing more light to reflect (as with feathers).

I will be doing more work like this. Scissors are hell on my hands, but I like the idea of what could be.  If you have thoughts or ideas, share them!

More progress pics…

I’m cutting out my birds. All but one are made out of canvas. Bristol is my go-to for most things, so I decided to try that and see how it matches up with the canvas birds. I’m not sure about it. Initially, after painting it and putting it against the background, I didn’t like it, but 2 coats of paint later, it might be okay. It doesn’t have the texture of canvas, of course, but I kind of like it. Perhaps mixing materials wouldn’t be such a bad thing?  The Bristol bird is the largest one in the last pic.

 

The progress pics…

My lady underwent some changes. I lost my knife in the move, so used all purpose shears to cut her out. I’m not thrilled, but this is leaning more toward an experiment than anything, so it’s cool.

The background canvas was one of five that I had mass painted prior to moving. I haven’t fulfilled my intentions with them, so I grabbed one to use for this. Eventually I’ll go back to those, but I’ll save that explanation for another post.

So, here they are.  If you have thoughts, share ’em.  Thanks for looking! 

 

It’s not unusual…

…for me to occasionally dabble in landscape-type paintings when requested.

My Aunt Bonnie, like me, loves the sea (I’m certain it’s a hereditary thing). One of the main things she loves: Lighthouses. Aunt Bonnie = Lighthouses…always has. She asked me to make her a lighthouse picture a few weeks ago, so I did a watercolor sketch and sent it to her…and forgot to sign it. She’s a sweet stickler for things like that and demanded I make her another, SIGNED this time. I did, except this time ’round, I used acrylics.

The idea of making tapestries has been really intriguing to me lately so I decided to experiment using canvas. My intention is to slide a dowel rod through the top (replacing that nightmare thing I have in there right now) but keeping the idea of hemp twine wrapped around the edges and used as a way of hanging the painting (plus I think she’ll like the rope look combined with the painting). And, yes, it’s signed! 🙂

I haven’t forgotten about you…

I swear. I think about you every.single.day.

I have been bound (and gagged) by horrible grown up stuff like…cleaning and signing leases and paying bills. Yuck. Short story with zero periods: Our lease is up in July, the same direction our rent is going, we were going to move, I cleaned like one does when preparing to move (as in, hauled ass cleaning EVERYTHING), I created a donation pile so large I will have to make multiple trips, decided not to move, everything is nice and clean, and I have been doing much artwork since. Even some things to sell! Woohoo!

Tonight I quickly sketched out a drawing for an eventual painting I want to do for our living room/Manbearpig Cave. Hopefully the painting will be done tomorrow when the Husband is gone. Then I will hang it in said cave so when he comes home, he can “oooh” and “aaah” and all of that stuff people REALLY into action figures do.

Please note that the current figure has 3 hands and some seriously twisted features…he will be losing 1 hand and his features will be restored.