Painting Again

Oh, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a paintbrush again! I was so excited that I woke up at 4 this morning. Last night I started drawing this on the canvas and today it took me about two more hours to get the face right because it's at a strange angle. The model is my sister Ellen. One night she was sitting here talking to me and I liked the light so much I made her do all kinds of things and I took pictures while she tried not to laugh. But the pictures turned out well and I knew they'd make good paintings if I could pull it off. I have a vision in my head and I just hope it will end up somewhere near that. Now that everything is blocked in, tomorrow I'll concentrate on the face and hands, the hardest, hardest parts. I'm trying to use the biggest brush possible for each section.

When I made plans on my big calendar ( I'm going to call it 'my life on the wall') this whole week was devoted to the miniatures, but I think they are ok like they are. So I put them together, put a coat of medium on, and they're done. Now I can paint all week and be ahead of myself. Actually, there a several things I can do with the extra time.....work on the twins' portraits, practice using my Wacom tablet and Photoshop Elements, watch the five art videos I have but have never seen, or experiment with polymer clay. I couldn't ask for a more wonderful problem! This must be heaven; to have the time, supplies and space to make art for the rest of your life whenever you want to.

These are the finished miniatures. They are on gallery wrap canvas and the portrait is raised from the surface. I'm going to write an explanation of what they are about, I remember I posted that a while ago.

President Obama, Now Doesn't That Sound Good?

I couldn't tear myself away from the tv until about two o'clock, long after President Obama was inaugurated. It was so great to see so many people, braving the cold, waving American flags, wearing Obama knit hats, and chanting, "Yes, we can! Yes, we can!" Well, now it's a reality, and I pray for President Obama to have the strength to accomplish what we all want him to. I pray for him to be safe.

 

In my in and out time of the studio today, I worked on some more collages ( the one above has obviously not been trimmed yet) and then started a painting of my cute little nephew, Gabriel. I'm listening to my friends now, because so many have said they like my other work but my portraits are the best. I love to do portraits! The only ones I've done have been in colored pencil, so I thought I'd challenge myself to do one in acrylics. We'll see how that goes tomorrow. After that, a self portrait. Ooooooohh...scary. I've had to put my airport picture up to look at it for awhile before I start on it again. I got bogged down in details and knew I had to stop.

 I hope that our leaders will be creative as they examine new ways to deal with old problems.

I've Lost It!

Has anyone seen my focus lately? Because I've lost it. And, boy, nothing weighs on me more heavily than wasted time. So I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing while feeling guilty about every second that passes. Today I gave myself a gift...an entire day to play in my studio, without guilt. Well, I had fun, but I think I wasted paint and time. There is nothing to show for this but I do know a little more about the qualities of acrylics, so it was worth it. 

During the last week, I've also worked on another chair, this one is 14x11. And this is a scan so it was not able to fit on the scanner bed, so it's a little cropped and crooked. It's not finished.

Of course I've been thinking while experimenting in my studio, and the result of my thinking is this. Portraits are my real love. When I started using colored pencils, it was to do portraits. Then last year I started some still lifes with pencils and they went over well, many were sold. Most of those had black or dark backgrounds. And now I've moved into still lifes with lighter backgrounds and they haven't sold at all ( maybe the economy) and I really am not happy with them. So why have I strayed from what I love? I don't know! I think I need to just concentrate on portraits and figure studies. And I still feel a pull to the paints. I'm sure I'll get all this resolved in time. But that's what I began this post talking about...time!