Sunday, March 22, 2009

green hand

"To receive everything, one must open one's hands and give." Taisen Deshimaru

This is typical. Or at least, typically me. I am supposed to be working on updating Quickbooks and I can't help but get green dye all over my hands. I bet it will take at least a day to get rid of it. I hope the clients I'm visiting with tomorrow don't mind!

I've managed to get a few more paintings done, but have as of yet to post them on Etsy. I'm a little afraid, I guess, of being taken seriously or of being called a hack since I don't have formal training with painting. I just do what I like and what feels good on the canvas. My brother in law was asking how the venture was going and I had to evaluate where I'm at with all these paintings - I'm trepeditious about sending them out into the world. So for now, they're piling up on my Grandfather's curio cabinet, waiting for their chance to shine.

Friday, March 20, 2009

staging

"All the world's a stage." Shakespeare



It seems to me everybody else has great ideas on how to stage their artwork for showcasing for sale. I can't seem to get it right. My pieces are too small to create a good vignette around, or my house is too dark. I wonder what else I can do to capture the art in such a way as to make it irresistable? Perhaps as spring gathers steam there will be chances to take the photographs outside as well, instead of just on the same half moon table (with the same bird - different plant though. The other one died!)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

forward

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” - Henry Ford

I had a distinct idea when I started this painting what colours I wanted to use and how thick I wanted the paint to be, and how many layers upon layers I wanted, and what the general design would be. And none of it happened as planned. The colours were jarring and I added an intensely different colour over the others and presto! it worked. The end product wasn't as thick or consisted of as many layers as I had planned on, but I think I'm done and to add more would wreck things. The only idea that rang true throughout the process was the circle theme almost falling off the side of the painting, as if saying "c'mon! I'm ready to move forward! let's go already!"

So there you have it. Perhaps I should take myself out of the equation a bit more and just let the paints do their thing (since that seems to be what happens more often than not anyway!)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

come...

"Come, small life, spark of light, take the wings of Earth." Amerindian saying


I painted the above and added the quote for a gift for a lady who just told me she's expecting. It's done on a piece of wood, and I started with a large amount of gesso, and then layered pastel after pastel, with opalessence spray (Glimmer Mist) and finished off with a thick layer of Mod Podge. I especially like using the circle theme in my paintings when we're talking about a life, new or old.
As I also love doing digital-wonderfulness to my paintings after I scan them at 600dpi, I changed the hue and the saturation of this piece and applied a filter (Digital Image Pro 10 - I'm trying to use PhotoShop more but my first love is DIP10).


Too cool! I think a quote that may fit this altered piece is more like...
"like a water falling slow motion, like a map with no ocean, there's a limit to your love" - Fiest
Sorry it's been so long between posts. I was away for a while taking care of my sister's kids (along with my Mum) and goodness knows - kids leave very little time for anything other than cleaning up after them and sleeping once they're in bed. Or maybe that's just because I'm the Auntie and I'm not used to the hubbub...