PAINTER'S BLOCK

    Having a bit of I-am-just-not-in-the-right-creative-head-space to work on the Wine and Cheese and Landscape painting these past few weeks.  I have been staring at it.  It has been staring right back at me.  No one has blinked yet.

    I work weekends as a part-time "Activities Specialist/Classroom Coordinator" at a craft store.   I'm paid to "inspire" customers to craft.  I made this for the store about this time maybe last year and no one has the heart to take down or "refresh" the KONG!  It's completely not in an area that we sell these products anymore, but it's just so awesome and a huge hit with the kids that KONG LIVES!

This is some inspiration for the canvas bag display.

"S" for Superman.

Tie Dye Favorites

What else to do with a $1 placemat? Make it into a quick bag.

Chevrons are taking over the world

Glass Block lights and fun to put in your window

    Inspiration for the Open Stock Scrapbook papers Aisle.  This I thought about my Mom the whole time and how this little girl looks like her, and well everything just seemed like my Mom so I had a great time making this one, and it has become one of my "Bells of Mindfulness" at work, if you know what that means.  If not look up http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9074.Thich_Nhat_Hanh and you will feel peaceful.

    That's it for this week.  I'm going to blink now. Let the painting win for this round. I need a coffee.

Progression: Aunt Val's Painting

Hello Friends.

I have been dragging my feet because I was really trying to do it Cezanne style.  Tonight I said Eff that.  I just tried to get lost.  It was all about trying to get those bricks to look like something, and then add a little of the beginnings of a landscape.  

It was hard to get into the groove tonight.  I was going back and forth feeling bad that I wasn't terribly panicked that my Grandfather is in the Hospital... again.  I am concerned, however, I feel kind of guilty when I'm not wrought with panic about it, since that was my norm for most of my life.  But since I am healing of all that... I think he will make it to his 84th? birthday this summer... just like I will make it to my 35th.  If not, I will punch myself in the face later about it.

 So when I stopped feeling bad that I wasn't feeling bad... I painted a snake in the grass.  And then everything started to flow.  Flowers went in, little things were fixed.  I must get rid of that bread and fix that bottle a bit, but so far good rough in of the flowers, and placing of the landscape outlines.  I'll paint over the snake eventually... but for now, he's my cheerleader.

 I really hate the bread thing,  I'm going to change it to crackers and cheese and more grapes because I kind of hate the grapes right now too since they are waiting on the wine bottle to be a different color and better.  Then the grapes will cover that edge of the bottle and look a little more like a bunch of grapes that aren't, weird.  Wine glass will go in soon.  I will try to focus on a nice sunbeam making its way into the scene too.  Let's see if I can successfully do that... (not confident...lol)

I'm a little tired, so I'm sorry about the "eh" style of writing tonight.  I just wanted to get some photos up since I do kinda love the energy that went in for the last hour which was happy and playful  which is me, and so it's looking a lot more fun then it did.  :)  No fancy links or tags tonight... later maybe...

Enya was not listened to high school painting class friends, because I don't have any on my computer.  A mix of Deep Forest, Faith No More, Return of the King, and some other stuff I can't remember right now on shuffle from my collection was vaguely present in my awareness during the zone though :)

Happy Tuesday!

Aunt Val's Painting

In High School I painted a still life in the style of Paul Cezanne.  It was the hardest assignment I had to do.  I was so frustrated with it I basically told my teacher in such a bratty teenage way, that I was done.  She pushed for me to "fix" a few things and I was like F-That, because it was me the class was waiting on to move on to the next assignment, and I didn't want to be the slow kid.  It still looks pretty good, but that teapot is just not quite right.  I don't care. It has character...lol

So here I go again, trying to do this style AGAIN.  I will get frustrated, I will be upset, but I'm going to get through it because it is for my Aunt Val, and I love her.  She just loves those grapes in the original painting.  Besides I had a ball painting the rest of the painting so this should go that way as well... it was just ... SLOW for me to pick up on the style.  Of course there will be little me-isms in there which you probably can tell already my base colors of Blue, Green, and Orange are already predominant... I will TRY to get more colors in there.  There's some red, and purple and some yellow in there already I swear!

So you'll be with me for a while on this one, but I'll post some other interesting things in between so we won't get bored.   

I was sent a few reference photo ideas for this one.  It is my first time using Water Soluble Oil Paint for an entire painting.  It takes a long time (I work with acrylics usually).  Oh and I like challenges. 

 

I really need the windows open for this one so it has been put off until the weather was better. I started the color blocking part months ago and the window in the painting was putting me off.  Mocking me, telling me it was "off" like the teapot so I figured it out working on that section mostly today (about 2 hours) So it's still in it's baby-stages but at a point where I can let you guys start following along with me.   

I hope to get some more interesting objects in there as time goes on, maybe some cheese,  but for now these are just place markers since what I really want to do is start getting the landscape in the window (I'm thinking Mt. Vesuvius) to look decent before I muck around with the table.  As you can see, I have set up my faux "still life" so as I get bored of either working on the table or the 'scape... I can switch easily between them without too much fixing.  The point for this one is going to be trying to get the light just right through that bottle. 

The photos aren't great of what (to the right) I worked on today since I have been too destitute to purchase new batteries for my good camera and these were taken on my phone,  the first earlier in the sun, the second with just my overhead living room lighting since it's now.. 2:30am.  I tend to over explain things out of nervous habit...

More soon!

More of the Fish painting

As a painting progresses I like to take reference photos. Having a background in animation it's fun to see the echo of the animation process in the recording a painting.   I do this for myself, well, because it looks cool. 

I experimented with some mediums in this one using Gel Medium which slows down the drying time of the acrylic paint while giving it a gooey warm jello flow.  Seemed to feel in tune with the gooey fleshy snotty consistency of things in water all the time.

 These great cartoon ghosty eyes were happening all over the painting. I added some body to them as they became their own life.  

There are some freshwater fish making their way into this painting.  I had quite a few different fresh water fish growing up that have made it into there.  A Black Molly, a Fan tail Guppy, Some fake looking seaweed from a childhood tank... I quite miss having a fish tank. 

 The detail accomplished in these eyes were not premeditated.  They just came about in the swirl making process, and I tried to preserve it as much as possible.  I have never intentionally painted or drawn in this style before and it was quite a giddy surprise that I made something so cool looking.  Naturally I took 100 photos, in case I messed it up and had to re-do.  

I also added Dill seeds into the paint around the eye to give it a bumpy texture just to see what happens.  I have some Glass Beads Gel Medium that is hard to see in this picture, but they will be more prominent in the next set of pictures I will post on this painting.

Breaking the Fast of Winter

With a jar of blue paint leftover from another project this painting was born.

 I was thinking about what was under the surface of the ocean and a few swirls became identifiable fish.

I was inspired to create something on my new French Easel Mom bought me for Christmas.  Not quite outdoor weather to test it out in the field (like Van Gogh painting crows) but thinking about outdoors helps me get through the winter.

The Culprit

This is the painting that started it all.  My Great Aunt Pat was talking with my mother years ago about how the last time she saw me was when I was in High School and we were talking about my painting class.  We were studying Fauvism at the time where color was the big thing.  I was painting something that I was putting "red grass" into and it was my favorite assignment ever, to be painting something all the "wrong" colors.  

So I suppose she asked me to paint her something like that at the time of that conversation, something with red grass in it.  She didn't care what it was as long as it had red grass in it.  I had forgotten all about it and Mom reminded me of course.  Got to work right away and sent it to her for Valentine's day I believe.

The photo I was referencing for this landscape is from My Grandfather's Camp out in Vermont.  I looked at that photo and decided that the things I liked most about the mountaintop camp in Vermont were the colors of the flowers in the fields with butterflies, and the sky at night.   

Painting with those things in mind is how this came about.  This is the first painting I did in my "own" style.  

Stuffed Studio!

Hello Friends.

I have been much overwhelmed with craft supplies this year in my studio space.  I become interested in the process of one craft or another and I have this compulsive need to buy materials to make said craft.  Then sometimes it sits around for 10 years.  

This has been going on a long time. Growing up, a corner of my bedroom was my Mom's sewing "room".  Mom was in my room a lot making things and I would help.  I would say this is her main passion craft, whereas mine has always been painting or "coloring".  I would get excited and want to make things too when she was making her sewing projects, however I don't quite posses the passion or skill set she has for the actually MAKING the thing part.  

Around my Junior year of High School I lost my kitteh Sundae.  She was a shy and sweet Calico.  The boys in the house called her a scaredy cat... I called her a "Scared of YOU TWO!!" cat because they were loud and bad.  She was nice to me, and I loved her very, very much.

ANYWAYS I lost her, and started having my Mom teach me how to sew as a hobby.  I think at the time she was also taking a quilting class so it was nice to have her company when I was home in my room as she made her quilt squares.  I'm getting off track... anyways, I bought some fabric that I was inspired by at the time and now after 13 or so years I haven't done a thing with it.  

BURGUNDY FAUX FUR!

 ROYAL BLUE VELVET!

AWESOME IRIS AND FEATHER PATTERN SILK!!!

For the next month I am going to try to sell things that are cluttering my space and mind in my studio.  If I haven't used the thing in a few years... I'm going to see if someone else has a need for it.  So today I listed three luxe fabrics I have been seeing in my closet for years:)

PLEASE take a look on my esty shop "Paintventure" and pass it on if you know someone who would like these fabrics.  :)

SUNDAE from a page in my scrapbook.  :)