Day 23- Helen

Day 23- Helen, 20x16 acrylic on stretched canvas

I met this woman Monday when I was going to the Post Office to mail a package. She had a walker and was approaching the entrance, so I held the door for her. By the time we got into the long line, we’d already laughed together twice and knew each other’s names. I asked if I might take her photo for a possible portrait painting and she was perfect- agreed, didn’t show me all her teeth and held still while I took the shot. Heaven. I loved her beret and her glasses on the chain and how ‘graphic’ she looked. I’ve only painted one or two portraits in acrylic years ago and I uttered lots of bad words the whole time. This one went better.

Day 22- Swim The Huge Fluid Freedom

Swim The Huge Fluid Freedom

16x20 acrylic on stretched canvas

The title for this painting is from a poem by Rumi,  It goes, "Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity? Why would you refuse this joy to anyone?  Fish do not hold the sacred liquid in cups. They swim the huge fluid freedom."
I take it to mean that the world holds much to enjoy and nothing holds us back from its experience and its beauty and the freedom offered, but ourselves.  And even more... don't resent others who dive right in!

Day 21- Jewels Beneath

Day 20- We Are All Connected

12x36 Triptych Acrylic on stretched canvas

Day 19 Mirage

Day 18 - View From Camp

Day 17- Lavish Island

Day 16- Story Arc

Day 15- Between Incarnations

Day 14- Room In My Heart

36”x24” Acrylic on stretched canvas

Day 13 Work In Progress

Day 12- Strata

12x12 Oil on Canvas Panel

Day 11- work in progress

28x22 oil on stretched canvas

Work in Progress

Day 10- Leaves Of Grass 6x12 Oil on cradled panel.

Fwd: Day 10- Leaves Of Grass

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Day 10- Leaves Of Grass

Leaves Of Grass 12x6 Oil and cold wax on deep cradled wood panel.

Day 9- One Size Does Not Fit Us All

Day 9- One Size Does Not Fit Us All
12”x12” Mixed Media with Monoprints and patterns on painted cradled wood panel.
I discovered the method of making monoprints with a gelatin plate recently. Each print is unique and a surprise- a huge part of the appeal. I used two of those artworks in this one.
I really like this one.12x12, Mixed Media on painted cradled wood panel.

Days 7 and 8- Hide and Seek, and Lofty Story

Hide And Seek
8x10 oil on stretched canvas



This painting was like playing with a friend who knows all your good hiding places. A challenge, but fun!


Lofty Story
11x14 oil on stretched canvas
 

Painting this was like following the thread of someone’s complicated tale. I squinted and kept nodding in encouragement. I used several tools to apply the paint and at first fought with the silhouette that kept being like an animal's shape. Once I conquered that, I wanted to see some lyrical lines to counterbalance the heaviness. The white line helped me breathe better.

Day 6- Twist Of Fate

Twist Of Fate
24x36 oil on stretched canvas

It was fun to work larger today... but how to fill all that space?  I started with the dark Payne's Grey line swooshed across the middle from left to right, then started lower left and swooshed another palette knife line to upper right.  The rest was just trying to make what I did seem like I had a reason for doing it.   Like explaining something you did without thinking.  The first half of the time I worked only in turquoise and the dark grey. It was clear I needed more color, so brought in the ochre and the white. I used a brush and a thick foam pad that came as packaging in something I bought. And added a skippy kind of line with the palette knife here and there. You're not supposed to have the focal point in the middle, so maybe I blew it. But although the lines converge there, I'm going to reason that nothing holds your eye there, so let's say there's a moving focus. Yeah, that's it. A moving focus. Yeah.

Day 4 Accidental Landscape

Accidental Landscape
8x10 Oil and Cold wax on stretched canvas

I started off placing random blotches of paint leftover from my last painting (as you do),
and before I knew it, a landscape of sorts appeared. I have painted few landscapes. Faces are my bailiwick. but I do like how this turned out.  Broken color appeals to me.  Like a mosaic of tiny bits that read as something from a distance.

Day 2 - 30 Paintings in 30 Days

San Antonio And Vicinity
12x17 Mixed Media

This work was created on a microscope slide tray. I have hundreds and hundreds of them. Don't ask.
Three of the vertical panels consist of mono prints I made and then pieced into the furrows of the tray. One of the mono prints was made on a map of San Antonio.  One panel is acrylic paint marked into with a silicone tip, and the last is a piece of hoarded tissue paper, decoupaged into place. This piece was a pleasurable puzzle. I'm pleased with the result. Now what to do with the remaining hundreds of the microscope trays?

30 Paintings in 30 Days- Day 1

Turquoise Tour

8x10 oil on stretched canvas

I'm way off my beaten track to explore how it feels to paint abstractly. Confidence low, excitement high, Thirty days of this experiment should tell me something... but what?