It’s a Series …

Watercolor, pastel, pen

Watercolor, pastel, pen

I have run out of title for my flower forests. I have also run out of reasons to fight it. Believe it or not this began with the same whimsical thought (hope) of simplicity and elegance as all the rest. It’s become clear to me that a mild flu of the wild has caught hold and I’m powerless.

Next step? Go big. And go all out in series mode.

By the way, do you see the girl in the gold, pink dress? The pear that looks like a fish … and the dog that looks like it just did something wrong? Do you see the elephant in the flower that seems to think she is a bee? And the reptile looking monster above the ant eater? Did you notice I refrained from bunnies for the first time in weeks? Are you proud of me?

Forest of Characters

Final Garden Painting - Acrylic on Gesso Board

Final Garden Painting – Acrylic on Gesso Board

I seem to be onto something : : c h a o s : :

I really thought it would be different this time. But there it is … complexity at its finest. Ha!

I do like the girl and snail and blobby character with the skirt. They decided to pay a visit and make me giggle.

Have a great week!

Blowing Flowers Up

Blown Flowers. Acrylic on Paper with a straw and good lungs ...

Blown Flowers. Acrylic on Paper with a straw and good lungs …

 

From Painting Gardens: blowing paint around with my fancy black straw and spackling with a toothbrush. It’s been wonderful painting daily again. The sense of excitement is the same (even more so). The challenge to make it a priority activity in the midst of work and life demands is the same but easier since the 365 marathon.

By the way, The Art of Daily Cultivation: A Celebration of 365 Story Paintings hardback book arrives Friday June 13th (unless the UPS guy swerves to avoid a squirrel and dumps them into a river or something – but hey I’m not superstitious)!

I will send out the newsletter this weekend. There are new story cards as well and other exciting news. It’s been an awesome June!

Chicken Feet

Chicken Feet. Acrylic on Pine Board

Chicken Feet. Acrylic on Gray Gessoed Pine Board 12 x 7.5′

Nice to be producing a painting a day again. This is from an exercise in “Painting Gardens” on masking. See the lines and squiggles? Oh, and the big footed chicken was in the beginning a flying girl with a shovel. After many masking mistakes the form took me by surprise. Birds are creeping into all my paintings these days.

Hope you are having a fabulous summer.

Painting Gardens

Bird, Bunny, Owl Garden

Bird, Bunny, Owl Garden. Acrylic on Gessoed Board

Learning new stuff! These are paintings created over used palettes for other paintings. Cool technique. Kind of rough and textured for an oil painter. But it’s growing on me. I learned this in an online class through Carla Sonheim, taught by Diane Culhane. We are a week into it. So I will post more next week too.

Bunny and Bike Garden

Bunny and Bike Garden. Acrylic on Gessoed Paper

Birds … they love paint

Birds-...-2

There are actually six birds in this painting and three different paintings under it. I was inspired to recycle all paintings in my stack I no longer liked after taking the abstract painting class. I felt wild and actually thought I’d get them all done in a week. Four weeks later this crazy bird painting is finally done. The last painting session was in dim light. When I saw the result in the light of day, it made me giggle. A joyful mess of paint … for sure.

5 ft x 5 ft Finger + Palette Knife Oil Painting

5 ft x 5 ft Finger + Palette Knife Oil Painting

And it used to be this:

drawingyak

And then this:

The history of paint

The history of paint

The canvas is thick with paint and marks. It’s been a fun journey. Onward!