ONE LITTLE CORNER

 

I live most of my life, quite happily, in one small corner of the world ….just a few square feet of space right in front of my easel.

It works for me!

I found another little corner this morning which also worked for me.  One of the photos, sent to me by my traveling hubby wasn't terribly interesting but something drew me to the tiny right hand, upper corner of the larger picture.  I cropped it and knew I’d found the inspiration for today’s ‘before breakfast’ painting.

So, when you are looking through your reference photos, don’t forget to peek into the corners, so to speak.  Remember that you can take bits and pieces of a picture for your use. You don’t have to use the whole thing.

 

Here’s the big picture including the rear view mirror on his big rig.  Lots of his photos have that particular feature. 

 

 

 

Here’s the little bit I cropped out from waaaay up in the right hand corner.

 

 

 

Here’s the resulting painting with some artistic license taken.

 

It is, after all, my world and I can create it however I see fit.

I have not blogged in so long that there is way too much to try to catch up on.


First....my friend, Louise, who sometimes commented here, passed into her next Great Adventure not too long ago. But before she left us, she blessed me in a mighty way...and continues to do so.

On Monday, July 26th, 2010, she wrote this in my comments:

"This is the dawning of your life..You're ready to start the heart & soul mosaic of "Dances with Brush".... I hear Pianos, guitars,castinets....they're playing your song..its the never-ending story of the brush that could bring so much joy ."

'...ready to start the heart & soul mosaic....'


When I read those words, they indeed felt like a blessing and somehow, I recognized that she spoke a truth.

A few weeks later, her many facebook friends gathered in our special cyber-space around her and her family and held vigil for her as she passed.

During the several days this took, I joyfully...and often tearfully....worked on a special painting. One that I hoped she could feel in her soul as she made her transition. I certainly felt her Spirit with me as I painted. I kept hearing her repeat my own words back to me, which I had written in my blog of August 27, 2010....TAKE MORE CHANCES!!!!.....I did and this is the result.

ASCENSION

36 X 48

Still, I knew that I wasn't going the distance. I knew I was holding back.....staying safe.

Fast forward to yesterday.

But first, I have to lay some groundwork.

A week or so ago, I happened to catch a PBS program about painters of New Mexico. One of them was of special interest to me. I was in awe of her freedom of expression! She literally dances with her brush and canvas...only she doesn't use a brush...she uses knives and trowels! I mean the kind of trowels used by plasterers!

So....yesterday, I took myself to a high-end gallery here in Tucson. I haven't been there in over ten years. Guess who's paintings were being shown????

If you guessed the lady from the PBS program, you're a winner!

Often, I come home from visiting art galleries wondering why I don't just give all my art supplies to someone more worthy of using them. LOL Yesterday, I came home inspired by that one artist, to actually paint like no one would ever see it and to TAKE MORE CHANCES.

I have occasionally painted with a palette knife....but almost always with fear and trepidation. Yesterday, I threw all caution to the four winds and let my soul soar!

As I danced with my canvas and knife, I could almost hear Louise laughing with joy and cheering me on.

When I was finished...which didn't take very long.....I felt like I'd just been set free. And I felt full of joy! I loved the painting!

FREEDOM

24 X 36

I wondered, as I went to sleep last night, if I could possibly repeat that same freedom of expression again.

So, first thing this morning, I tried again.

FREEDOM #2

16 X 20

What you can't see in these photos is the very thick, textured paint which seems to just breathe life into them!

I am smiling in my soul.

I am grateful beyond belief.

Guess the name of the painter lady whose work inspired me?

It's Louisa.

Do you find that interesting?

I do.

Here's a link so you can see Louisa's work.


http://www.marksublettemodern.com/content/McElwainbiography.lasso










http://skayspeak.blogspot.com/

MISS DAISY, CODI AND OTHER IMPORTANT MATTERS

Miss Daisy has recovered nicely from her surgery.  She will be adding no more unwanted kittens to this world.  And, thank heaven, the crazy behavior and the caterwauling have ceased.  Peace reigns, once again.

She is growing like crazy.  And, for the most part, she and Codi have become friends.

  Codi still maintains her status as feline Queen and can put Miss Daisy in her place with little effort. 

Note the evil eye.

The chair legs make a great playground. 

Miss Daisy performs on the parallel bar and while Codi glares.

Daisy, like most kids, loves to play with empty boxes.

She also loves empty cigarette packages.  Don't fuss at me.  Please.  Thank you.

I almost have her trained to bring them back to me so I can throw them for her to chase.  I actually had another calico cat that I trained to fetch a ball.  I'm not sure Miss Daisy is as bright as my Callie was, though.  The jury is still out on that one.

She also love to play with pens.......

But by far, her very favorite toy is still the string one....not the stuffed mouse on the end of it, just the string intself.

There's one other thing she really likes to do.  She just adores biting buttons!  That one scares me a little, for fear she might actually bite on off and swallow it.  But it's hard to make her stop.

Can you tell I'm wearing one of my old painting shirts?

Codi continues to be her own regal self.  She very graciously sat for a formal portrait.

Pretty girl!

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Gladolus update!

Remember these?

Today, they look like this.

Plus, the very first blooms on the wild verbena!  I love that verbena!

This is what we're hoping for.

************

I did my daily painting. (See yesterday's blog.) Here it is.

There are things I like better about this one.

And things I like better about the other one.

But I learned something from doing each of them. And I am looking forward to doing more.

I'm grateful for Codi, Miss Daisy, the promise of Spring and the ability to still learn.

And I'm grateful for you.

STARTING OVER

Sometimes an idea just doesn't work.


That's when you just wipe it out and start all over. You're not really starting over though, because you have a layer of paint left. It might be pretty muddy and murky, nevertheless, you have something to build on the next time you go at it.

Kinda sounds like life, doesn't it?

Things might not be working out at all, but you've got another layer of experience, another layer of knowledge and another perspective to use the next time you go at it.

On my art website, are these words.

"....it's not realistic to expect perfection from the first brush stroke to the last. A painting, like life, is created by making mistakes and correcting them as you go."

Today, I was trying something new and my attempt went from bad to worse. I used to get really upset when this happens.

"Think of the wasted paint," I'd say to myself.

Now I say, "Think of what I just learned. Next time, I'll know better."

I'm grateful to have learned this good life lesson.

***************************

I thought I was finished with this post.  But I'm not.  Here's why.

The next day after wiping out the mess I'd made, I was looking at the canvas and wondering what I would/could do with it.  It was pretty dark...and a greenish blue...so I thought 'forest.'

With a splash of sunlight.

There just happened to be a puddle of sunlight on my palette, so I dipped a brush right in there and scooped me some up and said, "Let there be light!"  And there was light!  Right there!!!

And either a stream or a road...don't know which yet.  I don't have a plan...at all. This is exactly how I get myself into trouble...or lots of fun...depending on how you look at it.   

The painting  progresses.

I like this, for the most part...but of course, I wound up messing it up.  Now, I've got the river running right out of the picture on one side...a NO-NO, for sure!

Everything I did just seemed to make it worse.

I am getting very frustrated!

Although I really liked this one...and could have used my picture of it as a reference and try to get it back...I just keep making more messes.  So, I quit for the day.

In the middle of the night (of course), I figured out what my frustration is all about.  This painting was begun in a very loose, impressionistic manner and I am moving more and more toward it being more realistic...and  I'm nit-picking....a sure fire way to ruin something!  And most importantly, it was, in the beginning,  all about that tree.  The more I added, the more the tree got 'lost.'

So....hard as it was to do, this morning, I wiped out a lot of it and tried to get back to the loose brush strokes and freer style.

Here's where it is now.

I still have to get rid of the remnants of that big pine tree in the right foreground...but this is more what I had in mind when I started.  I sure hope I don't mess it up....again. 

**************

It's a couple of hours later and I have come to a  place where I feel pretty happy about the way it looks.   I might do a tad more to the bottom left rock...and I will need to sign it.  And there's something wrong with the right edge of th tree shape.  But for now, I am going to tell myself to STOP!  And I'm going to listen to myself.

It may not be my best-ever painting.  Heck, it might not even be a good one.  But I learned a lot doing this painting.  And I am very grateful for that.

name suggestions?

16 x 20

oil on canvas

P. S.    Different light conditions are responsible for some of the differences you see in these progression photos.  The last photo is a close as I can get it to the real thing.