Going From This to That...

Here is the painting that I was working on the other day. I didn't really like where it was going so I went elsewhere. That peach around the edges really was disturbing me. I don't know why. I just wanted to get rid of it. So I queued up Amazon Prime and started watching episodes of "Dead Like Me" until I got bored of that and switched to "Galaxy Quest". I love that movie...

And this is what happened while I was watching. (See below). I also don't know whether I am finished with this. So I will let it sit for a while and stare at it from time to time while I mess around with other projects...

Plants and Projects are Springing Up All Over

Well this winter has been a mother...and I don't mean that in a kind, devoted, and loving way. Didn't get much painting done. I felt like I was hibernating in my studio-gathering ideas and images-but little else. Then over the last week, the snow has melted, the sun has come out and plants are bursting through the surface. Now it's a race to get the garden cleaned up before the plants get too tall. In the meantime, I've got several projects I've been working on in the studio too.

Started working on this piece a couple weeks ago and have been gathering and testing materials on it. I want to kind of weave a sky between the two branches. Discovered wire won't work-not enough tension. Trying embroidery thread next.

Then I started cleaning up the frames I've been collecting from friends, the dump and wherever. I think I can stop for a while...

Don't know where I'm going with this one below. Just playing with some colors, drips, and splotches.

Again with colors and plant shapes. We all know they won't end up looking like this...

This one is based on a photo I took of the swamp in the woods last fall. Still needs lots of work, but the colors are in the right places...

 Hopefully I will be able to keep up with it all. I feel like I'm in a race but I don't know who I'm competing with... I would like this to be a calm creative summer. There is no wedding to plan. No guests scheduled. Just a lot of painting and gardening.

What I'm Working On Wednesday...

Remember this monstrosity? Another old painting coverup. This time of a young woman with an unfortunately long face...

With a little time and regrets of the bygone summer (Where did it go so fast ? I swear we were just in August), the green blob evolved into this painting of digitalis or foxgloves...

I added a little more detail with a Prismacolor pencil at the end, but all in all, I think it turned out OK!

What I'm Working On Wednesday...

This project got a bit of an update the other day and was finally completed. When I last blogged about it, it was at this stage and I didn't know what to make of it:

I used the extra gessoed boards I had from my Glass Ceiling project, some light modeling paste (I LOVE playing with that stuff!), acrylics, and Radiant Rain's Shimmering mist spray for kicks. I was kind of stuck on where to go next when a friend suggested it needed little white flowers. At first I thought I would try an eye dropper and some fluid acrylics, but that was a fail. I ended up adding dots and flowers with a small brush.

At this stage I'm always afraid of ruining something and wondering whether or not to stop so of course I didn't. I added some more detail with a black micron pen and these were the finished paintings:

Daughter #4 has claimed them for her apartment next year. I guess that's a seal of approval...

What I'm Working On Wednesday...

So I thought that since I'm struggling so much to sit down and actually blog a couple times a week, I would give myself a theme like "Throwback Thursday" in order to entice myself to blog on. I came up with "What I'm working on Wednesday". Not the cleverest of themes, but it works for me-I hope.
So here's another project that I've recently completed. I haven't even named it yet, so if you have any suggestions-let me know.
This project started off like several of mine lately. It was a redo of an old painting that I no longer liked. I had read an article in Cloth Paper Scissors about adding different textures to your canvas. This involved covering the canvas with masking tape and the gessoing it. When I last blogged about it, it looked like this:

Guess I was channeling the holidays and thinking of a snow scene. Well that didn't last long and the snow turned into woods...

And then the woods got a little crazy and turned into a moonlit scene...

Paint was dripped and a tad of glitter was added and then she was done.

Preparation for "Off the Grid"...

I'm not really going off the grid, although I used to harbor fantasies of that in my younger days. Too much reading of "My Side Of the Mountain" I guess. No, these are the pieces I have been working on for Artstream Gallery's "Off the Grid" show which opens this Friday Dec. 6th. I am so excited to be included. As a friend pointed out, this is the second time I have shown my work this year. How's that for throwing yourself out to the universe?
I have been working on these pieces for the past couple of months-ever since my friend Susan gave me the invitation.  Here is my process:

early concept-rejected because it was too literal

So one of the requirements was that we were allowed to submit up to 4 pieces. They also had to be a maximum of 6"x6". A challenge for me because I usually don't work so small.

I cut and then prepared the boards with a couple coats of gesso...

The concept that eventually came to me was that I wanted to paint a young woman pressing up against the proverbial glass ceiling, trying to break free of rules, confinement, strictures-the grid. I enlisted daughter #3 as model and took some photos of her from above. I selected 4 photos and based the drawings on them.

Photo, prepared board, and drawing

More photos and boards...

Starting to actually paint the figures was scary. I was afraid I was going to screw it up or make some irreparable mistake which I guess was silly because then I could just paint over it...

So I painted on fortified with the occasional glass of wine...

I decided to add the detail with prismacolor pencils so I could have more control. It also added an interesting layer of texture to the painting. I protected the pencil layer with a layer of acrylic medium and then added the glass ceiling after I had a glue trial with my glass and brass bits. I now own more glue than I will ever need...at least until the next project.

The finished pieces...Glass Ceiling #1, #2, #3, #4

Glass Ceiling #1

Glass Ceiling #2

Glass Ceiling #3

Glass Ceiling #4

Stages...

That's a painting?!
Umm...not yet. It will be when I'm done, but it's got a long way to go. At least a dozen walks, countless sessions on Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming episodes of series that do not tax the brain too much and get you "in the zone", multiple cups of tea and coffee, and long sessions in the thinking chair deliberating on what to do next.

Thinking chair-complete with fuzzy blanket and pillows

Sometimes I believe that people think that paintings and other projects spring fully formed from the artist's head like Athena from Zeus (Don't get the reference? Greek mythology. Look it up. Lots of fun. Sorry. It's the librarian and the mom in me...) Or they think it's sort of like a coloring book. We draw the outline and fill in the colors. If only it were that easy...Sometimes you do have a vision what the finished project should look like and when you do try to put it down on canvas, paper, your media of choice-it never ends up looking like what you envision. That's when I feel like I have settled. Either because I have made peace with my mind and what I actually have created or because I have realized that I do not have the technical skills yet to complete it. But maybe someday in the future I will and I will try again.

Most projects evolve with many layers. The painting, uh background above started out like this:

I made this for an online class a couple of years ago and I can't stand looking at it any more. She has a really long face and crazy hair but the husband made a nice wooden support for it so I decided to recycle/reuse and covered it with lots of green paint. I've got a goal in mind so we'll see how long it takes me to get there.

Another project I started is this:

I think this had cute little bunnies on it and was headed to my daughter's room when she was 10 but I got sidetracked for about 10 yrs and decided to experiment with texture so I covered it with masking tape and gesso, put a layer of blue paint on it, and dabbed it with paper towel. I stared at it for a couple of days and decided it looked like a snow scene, so I added a layer of white acrylic along the bottom:

It seemed as though there was a cottage along the snow line, so I sketched that in too:

Who knows where it will go from here? That's the fun part. And if you don't like it-you can cover it up and start again. Hopefully I will have enough courage to go with the vision and try to make it come alive. There are more than enough seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation to make it so...

Whatever Feeds the Muse....

I tend to work two ways while painting. The first way, I am totally relaxed and sitting in front of my easel with a blank canvas and streaming a documentary or a television series that I don't have to concentrate too hard on in order to follow. So far I have re-watched the entire original series of Star Trek, I'm halfway through the fourth season of X-files, and have dipped into several other series, jumping around as the mood hits me.

I'm just playing and paint anything that comes out of the end of my brush in a stream of conscious sort of way.

The other method involves more planning. I see something-a piece of rusty metal, a photo, a tree, etc. and I have a germ of an idea. I walk with it, I plan it, I daydream about it. I sketch things, I research, I scribble little notes about it. And then when it all seems to be coming together in my head...I make the playlist. I love making playlists for my projects. They just get you in the mood. I have a playlist for mermaid paintings, for angel paintings. I have ones for specific paintings like "In My Father's House", "Fern Geisha", and "Our Lady of Mass Destruction".

Here's something I'm contemplating for my next project. I'm thinking that it's used as a mask...

Somehow the sadder the music is, the broodier it is-all the better. I don't like to watch sad or traumatic movies or read books like that...but I love a good auditory weep session. Coldplay and Keane are especially muse inducing. What kind of music do you like to listen to while creating?