Day 28 - Day Dreaming

 Art has been a solace for me through my life. It is a place I can go when everything around me is sadness and pain, where I can find healing and peace.  Today's painting is titled Day Dreaming because when I paint, I can, if I'm lucky, achieve a kind of waking dream-like state, where I am immersed in the marks and the colors, the sweet faces of the animals I paint and the rich, juicy paint itself that is so satisfying to spread on my panel.. 

...and because this Bear is like a day dream, serenely sitting atop a giant cupcake in the sky...

Lastly, One of my favorite quotes about dreams...

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” 

 -Eleanor Roosevelt

"Day Dreaming", oil, 10"x10", click here to purchase

Day 8 - Five Lost at Sea

This painting was inspired by yesterday's painting of the duck in the bowl-turned sail boat.. I decided to take it a little more literally and paint the chickadees in a more boat like bowl in an ocean like setting.. :) I am loving this concept and have a few more in store..

I started this composition by deciding the color scheme and what animals I wanted in the bowl.. I am enjoying the more muted palette lately so went with generally a muted but saturated triad (yellow, red, blue).  I also began with just 4 chickadees but it just wasn't right.. this story needed a hearty bunch of these fellas to complete the tale plus the design rule of thumb to try to use odd numbers of things in a composition was niggling away at me. So, I added another and felt better about things... 

my question is why are the chickadees in a boat, and are they really lost?

5 Lost at Sea, oil, 9"x12", purchasing details can be found here

The original design of 4 Chickadees in a bowl -  and also, before I added leaves.. See?  Not as good..

Day 10 - Gentle Companions

In case the word Coo is unfamiliar to you, Coo means cow in Scotland. (so cute..) The cow pictured below is a Coo and in my opinion, the highland coo is one of the most entertaining and fun animals to paint.  They have adorably expressive faces and shaggy fur, plus the horns... which are just the icing on the cake. This friendly lady has an aura so sweet and gentle that butterflies and ladybugs can't help but flit about her as she dons chicory blooms in her hair. 

Some color talk:

Recently, I have been exploring different tones for my backgrounds.. Many of my paintings have very light backgrounds. A favorite straight-out-of-the-tube color of mine is called Warm White (manufactured by Gamblin). I love this color as it always imparts a warm glow and I like my paintings to have a light and airy feel to them.  

I recently purchased a tube of phthalo turquoise.. (phthalo is pronounced Thalo.. why is there a phth?  Dunno..) and have been using pops of it here and there in many of my recent paintings..  Today, I made a puddle phthalo turquoise and mixed it with a tiny bit of indian yellow and burnt sienna (two colors complimentary to phthalo turquoise).  This helped to knock it down and neutralize it a notch...phthlao colors are intense.. After mixing it, I thought that this shade of "warm" turquoise could potentially be a pleasing variation to the warm tones that are in the Coo and insects so I used it for my background.  And that's my color story.  I think it worked out nicely.. :)

Sometimes paintings are dense with philosophical meaning (my last two were...) and sometimes paintings are simply designed to make you smile. This is one of the latter kind, and I am just as happy with these kinds of paintings as the ones that are laden with symbolism.  I think there is room for all kinds of art in this world and joyful art definitely has a place.  That said, I am very happy if you do find meaning in my paintings. Art is for everyone and is a unique experience for each of us.

"Gentle Companions", oil, 10"x10", click here for purchasing details

Day 15 - Stepping Out

 Every now and then a little duckling in Chuck Taylors shows up in my studio asking to be painted.  And sometimes, a patron makes a special request for one!  This guy is the result of the latter :)  I started painting Ducks in Chucks a few years back and was amazed to find that I may have been the first person to think of pairing these two up.. Chucks are such an iconic shoe and many people love them, including myself.  I have owned quite a few pairs of these and still have a few pair that I break out when I'm feeling it.  Today's duckling is sporting a classic pair of black hi-tops and has a bowtie and umbrella for a bit of extra cuteness. He's definitely stepping out for some special yet fun occasion! This guy is already spoken for, but if you'd like a duck in chucks all your own, you can contact me here :)

"Stepping Out", oil, 8"x8", reserved for purchase

Day 2 of the Daily Art Plus Challenge - Troo Colors

Today is the 2nd day of the October daily challenge and today's painting is one I started last week in West Chester from the back of my van. I am away from my home studio several days a week and had to figure out how I could keep painting.. so I bought a van and embraced the van life!  (Lol.. its fun and its also challenging, so, the verdict is actually still out on how tightly I will be embracing van life, but for now, it's an ok compromise.. I'm sure I'll be writing more about my Van Painting adventures as the month wears on..  :)  Anyway, back to Bessie.. I put the finishing touches on this sweet gal in my home studio, and now she's showing her Troo Colors. She's a nice companion piece to yesterdays frog since they both have pretty flowers on their head, and the sunny butterfly about to alight balances things nicely. I chose this cow for the main subject for the graphic black and white which I thought would contrast nicely with the brightly colored flowers and I love her unabashed gaze too :) 
She is currently for sale at Visual Expansion Gallery in West Chester. 

 

"Troo Colors", Oil on panel, 10"x10", 

please contact Visual Expansion Gallery in West Chester for purchasing details.

Day 25 of the 30 in 30 challenge - Bird Bath

So this is another entry into my mini series of Visual idioms... I guess 'Bird Bath' is a kind of idiom..?Coming up with titles an be difficult. Sometimes more difficult than doing the painting itself!  But with this painting, as well as 2 others I recently did (Duck Tape and Rabbit Ears) the title came first.  Then I had to decide what kind of bird and what kind of bath... 

The bath was a no brainer.  I've painted claw foot tubs before and they are a lot of fun.. They come in all kinds of colors and have the best lines.  The bird took a bit more thinking.  I first looked up "what are the biggest birds in the world?".  I wanted a big guy, I knew.  I looked at ostriches, cassowaries (blue heads...), rheas and turkeys.. None of them quite worked.  In searching, I started to come across pelicans and remembered another pelican I had once painted.  The pelican I had painted previously had actually befriended a woman who lived on a house boat.  The story goes that she came across him and I think he was injured.  She cared for him and then come time for him to migrate, he did.  She didn't know if she would ever see him again.  Lo and behold, the following season, the pelican came back to her.  As far as I know, he comes back every season and hangs out on her house boat with her.  I love that so much.. So the decision was made.  Time to paint another pelican.  

As an aside, the nautical flag is the flag that symbolizes Charlie (C) and also means "Yes".  Always good to include a bit of the positive, I thought, and, maybe it's just me, but this pelican could definitely pass for a Charlie. :)

Bird Bath, Oil, 10"x10", click here to purchase

Day 23 of the 30 in 30 - Tyger Tyger

An American cartoonist once said that Van Gogh would have sold more than one painting if he'd have put tigers in them (the internet attributes this strange statement to Bill Watterson)

I don't know about the wisdom of this and I'm sure I don't know why Bill said that. I guess I'd have to hear it in context.  I do find it utterly amazing though that Van Gogh only sold one painting during his life time.  According to the website Van Gogh gallery, the rest of Van Gogh's more than 900 paintings were not sold or made famous until after his death.

This painting, however, is not at all about Van Gogh, but... knowing the above fact instills solemn gratitude in me. I am grateful for every sale of my artwork, and thankful for all of the loving support I receive because I know that being true to your dream can be a lonely affair...

Anyway, THIS painting was partially about my recent obsession with White on White. It is challenging to paint images that read well that are also composed of  many similar values.  At least it is for me.  And its the challenge that keeps me coming back for more...

I was also specifically inspired to paint a tiger because the poem "The Tyger" by William Blake has come into my consciousness several times in the past few weeks... two very different books I recently finished.. both coincidentally and prominently featuring Tyger Tyger in the protagonist's thoughts and a random reading on the internet that led me to another reference to this poem...  And it got me thinking about Tygers and what Blake was talking about. In it he ponders creation.. and the creator... the question he posed in prose is, can a God who created something as fearsome and beautiful as a tiger also have created the lamb?

And what about teapots and corvidaes?  I have not the answer.. just the painting... :) Please see below for the entire poem. 

Tyger Tyger, Oil, 10"x10", Click here to purchase

The Tyger

William Blake - 1757-1827

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Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?