Finished!

missheila
Originally uploaded by a me.

I have four paintings on the eBay/MissionFish site to benefit A Place to Bark! Whew - that was fun! Now what?...

I'm still trying to do stuff!

lildogswrk
Originally uploaded by a me.

Hey! So, a while back, from the blog of the talented and inspirational writer and artist Laini Taylor I learned of another talented and inspirational artist and dog rescuer Bernie Berlin. Bernie has started her "Linked by Love Auction," an art auction running now until December 25th to raise funds to complete her new shelter (GO! read both of these blogs! Now!). Anyone can also donate items to her ebay Mission Fish site with proceeds going to her rescue. I was inspired to get in front of the paint again, making a couple little dog pictures I'm planning to upload via Mission Fish. It's been great painting again. It's so challenging! And fun! Hopefully I can complete these soon! (and hopefully make some $ for A Place to Bark! - I'm crossing my fingers!)

Hi T!

edna2
Originally uploaded by a me.

Whew! I believe it took me at least an hour to remember all my addresses and passwords in order to get back in here. Been a long time, no? So! During the first week of this year, I attended a five-day painting workshop. I had never before devoted six or so straight hours a day, for five days, towards painting. (I couldn't stop and go stare at my kitchen that needed cleaning, or something) Wow! It was so much fun, and also kinda hard! Kicked my butt, actually. I got sick (sore throat, cough) and missed out on one of the days, which was really difficult. I missed those people that I had known for only three days, and I wanted to be painting with them! All I could think of, day and night during that time, was my painting - all the thoughts and feelings associated with making something on the fly. I'm still working on the painting. It's larger than anything I've done before - about four feet wide, on plywood, with acrylics and charcoal. It's from a photo of my great grandmother Edna and her dog Micky, in Iowa. Key things I want to accomplish: Edna's expression needs softening; bring out detail in Micky; figure out a different color for the building behind them.

A special HOLA CHICA! to a certain someone in Mississippi. :-)

shake shake shake

trouble
Originally uploaded by a me.

While I attempt to coordinate my hand and brain in an act of creativity against the passage of time, I encounter two main obstacles. The first is Sheila. She allows me a good half an hour of uninterrupted time before she lets me know with either grunting or loud BARK BARK BARKing that she has needs too. The second obstacle is the awesome music I put on my iPod! The involuntary "dancing" gets in the way of keeping the paint moving. I just can't deny the call of KC & The Sunshine Band don'tcha know. Could you?

too much cow bell

bdaynook1_27
Originally uploaded by a me.

I made some more progress on this painting. So much time passes for just this one of the many things I'd like to do. Ah well. We do what we can. I'm finding it's more difficult for me to paint people I know. I spend more time considering if something is good enough, or correct enough. I think about how my mom has certain feelings about her nose which I don't want to exacerbate by painting her nose a certain way. I don't want my cousin to dislike the depiction of herself in my painting... But really, I don't want to paint to replicate what someone looks like, I do want to capture a mood or a feeling, but that doesn't necessarily require a perfect (um, excruciating attempt at) likeness. So, these concerns I have are pushing away how I'd really like to paint. I think maybe that's what gives the "ladies" picture the life it has - I don't know these ladies personally, so I'm not concerned about their feelings about how I'm making them look. I am also learning how much an overly defined eyebrow can look really freaky.

I cleared a path

eprogress
Originally uploaded by a me.

Guess what? I cleaned out a part of the room in which I paint - at least so I could stand near the painting which is loosly nailed to a wall - and I focused on one head of the current painting. After a couple hours of so-so progress, I see that I shouldn't focus on one small part of the painting at once, especially considering that I'm using acrylics and so the paint in my palette dries and months later when I start on it again I've made some colors which don't have much to do with the ones I used before. So, whatever. I took shots of the head as I progressed and I think that the face with slightly less definition is more intriguing. I'm working off of a photo and I think I got too caught up with trying to capture a certain look in the photo, instead of being more open to how the painted face was progressing, what this new face might want to do. Does that sound goofy?

birthday nook

birthday nook
Originally uploaded by a me.

Here's what I have going now - haven't touched it in, um, about 5 months.