"Sprite" in process

As could be expected after looking intensely at orange for so long, I've been craving blue. This tiny blue glitter bow was just the what the doctor ordered! I do love a stick on bow, maybe not as glamorous and elegant as the silk, satin, and velvet varieties, but boy are they loads of fun! And that's just how I wanted to feel today... cute and fun.

I'll be able to post the finished painting tomorrow, it is too dark now to get a good picture, but I could not wait to share my joy filled day!

"Flame"

SOLD

I do so hate being away from painting for an entire week, I was so glad to get back to my brushes and the smell of oil. I had plenty of inspiration for the feeling of heat in Alabama while I was there! My goal was to have this painting convey that sense of heat we are feeling from our summer days and maybe a secret flame or burning passion.

"The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire, and must be ready to be consumed by that fire"....Auguste Rodin

"Exist"

SOLD



"There can be no blue without yellow and without orange." --Vincent Van Gogh

"Presage"

SOLD



It only took me all day to figure this out. The colors in the shadow painting's photo are off, in person the paintings are exactly the same, but just getting the pictures to line up properly was enough for me to handle today. Whew! This blog world has taught me a lot more about computers than I ever thought I wanted to know!


Thanks to Carol Marine for helping me figure this out!

"Presage"

I must be taking my vitamins, because this painting just painted itself. This painting is a diptych, with one of the canvases containing this present, and its companion canvas containing the present's shadow. The above post shows the two together, but the zoom capability is not very clear and I wanted you to be able to see the thick brushwork in the velvet ribbon. (which you can do by clicking on this picture for a close up view)

So what's in a present?

These paintings of presents represent for me the unseen, more specifically the soul. If the eye is the window to the soul, is it a two way street? By that I mean, if someone looks into our eyes they can see into our soul, right? So can our souls also be revealed, and maybe just to ourselves, by what we take in through our eyes? Do we let our exterior world affect our interior world?

Crush

SOLD

Well I am happy I gave this little present another try. I knew there must be some reason I left it wrapped up sitting on my shelf for a year! Hope you love it too!

"Crush" in progress

This is the second time I've painted this little present. My first attempt, about a year ago, just did not capture the feeling I was after, so here I am trying again. I still have the left side of the bow to finish, but since I have not posted in so long I decided to let everyone see what I've been up to. My painting process is a strange one, and until I discovered Alex Kanevsky's website I thought I might be the only painter that goes about destroying the previous days work with no hesitation. What I mean by that is; I begin a painting then the next day when I return to it I might totally change colors, light, mood, everything. I always paint my "Presents" from life, and I think this daily change has to do with the change of light in my studio, my mood and my music which are apt to change every day as well. This particular painting has changed tremendously. One day there will be lots of purples in the shadows, the next day these shadows will be ochre. I always have a 'feel' I'm after in my painting, and keeping this in mind has helped me get back on track.