Latest Paintings and Things...

I haven't painted as much this week as I'd like, but for good reason - my new pooch, Annie!  (Her proper name is Anya, but her nickname is Annie, or Anna Banana, or Annie Granny or Lady Doodle or whatever.  Shut up.  I'm single.)

Here are some more paintings that will go up in my Etsy store!  (Which, yes, is still under construction.  I still need to photograph the paintings properly and set up graphics and all that.  Yeah.  Should be open by next year.  Blergh...)

First up, an instant favorite, TAR-JAY!

Jennifer misses Target.  Can you tell?

The canvas panel is 11x14 inches.  The background is acrylic paint (portrait pink, white and unbleached white).  The bag was applied and dried for about 10 hours. And voila, art!  (Target IS art.  You don't get to argue with me about that.  IT IS ART.  So shut it.)

Second up:  That is "Shurfine"!

This makes me want hot chocolate.

This canvas panel is 9x12 inches.  The canvas was prepped with white and unbleached white acrylic paint and then the bags were placed on top and they dried (like the one above) for about 10 hours.

I love how this turned out!!  What a peaceful setting.  My mom supplied me with this bag.  It's from a store in her tiny corner of the world, they used this as their holiday bag.  I had to cut out a "Shurfine" logo out of the middle and collage the sky to make it a complete picture.  

Last...  Flowers from the Caribbean! 

SQUEE!  Flowers!  My favorite!

Unlike Chunk from The Goonies, I love nature.  (As long as its just on my canvas....)  

This canvas panel is 9x12 inches.  The canvas was prepped with unbleached white paint.  What I did next was paint an impression of what the color of the flowers/leaves/stem would be (as the flower on the bag is merely a red outline).  This had to be done quite quickly as acrylic paint dries SO FAST.  (I have a "slow drying" medium to add to my paint for the next go-around.)  The bag then stayed on (again) for 10 hours or so.

I love the imperfection and impressionism of this.  Here's a close-up.

Alright, that's it for now.  But expect more soon!  (And yes, the store to open someday before I'm dead...)

New Painting!

I had the WHOLE day off today.  I'd looked for jobs, submitted a bunch of resumes the days before and had no shows tonight.  So naturally, I balanced my checkbook, cleaned, organized and read to orphans.  I kid!  I hate orphans!  (More kidding!)  I used today to paint... and man, it felt good.

When I was home last I was drawn to this photo my mom had taken in Iceland and framed:

Isn't that beautiful??  Mama Eolin has a really good eye.  (She took about 390348309438930438 photos, and that's just from last year...) It kinda already looks like a painting to me, which is maybe why I HAD to paint it.

So first step:  SKETCH.

Fascinating, right?  I use a charcoal pencil to roughly gauge where everything will go.  I know this looks like a child did it, but it took me an hour.  45 minutes was just looking at the picture and then looking at my canvas, then looking at the picture again, then back at the canvas.  (Where's my Icy/Hot??)

Second step:  Start to color block.

SQUEE!  So this process takes a few hours.  Figuring out colors and paint strokes, as well as fixing anything that doesn't look right proportionally along the way as once the next layer goes on, it's harder to fix anything I don't like.

Step three:  Landscaping! 

The grassy hills are in the style of Van Gogh, or at least my interpretation of Van Gogh.  I love his brush strokes and how he translated what he saw through paint.  I want to be just like him but without the bucket of crazy and just go around that whole bit about giving body parts to hookers and suicide.  (WHY are painters so messed up?  Thank GOODNESS I'm so rational and even keel..... right?!?!)

Now the details and voila...  It's done!!

I started painting at 1pm and finished at 9:30pm.  (A few breaks in there along the way... this biddy needs her tea, thankyouverymuch.)  I have a bunch of other photos from the same town that my mom sent me, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get to those SOON!  And hey, if I remain unemployed, yes, I will get to them sooner than later.

(NOTE:  Not sure if this is for sale yet.  If so, I'll be posting it in my future Etsy store.)

By the way, I've watched the following art movies/docs lately and all have been fascinating (and are avail on Netflix):

* The Art of the Steal

* Exit Through The Gift Shop

* Frida

* Pollock

* Beautiful Losers

I also just started reading Steve Martin's latest novel set in the art world, An Object of Beauty.  SO GOOD.

Okay, time to clean up the studio (read: "kitchen") and sit on the couch for an unauthorized amount of time and think about WHY my overhead neighbors must stomp when they walk.  Why can't they sit down too?  Sigh...