Day 12 - Well Read

 Today's little duckling is titled "Well Read" as I like to think that she enjoys not only sitting on books, but reading them too. :) My duckling paintings often end up hanging in a sweet little gallery in Kennett Square called Square Pear Fine Art Gallery and that is where this one is likely headed too.. there seems to be a good portion of folks down that way that like sweet little ducks, and better yet, ducks on books.  I like painting them so, it is a win-win!

"Well Read", oil, 8"x8", click here for purchasing details

This palette also keeps calling me back too.. I have used it or a variation in some of my recent rainbow/prism paintings, including yesterday's Happy Frog. Its a bit of a muted rainbow but you'll notice its missing purple! I don't have a problem with purple and in fact like it a lot.. But I find it interesting what happens visually if you don't include it.. interesting enough that I think I'll be exploring it more..

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 27 of the 28 in 28... Snail-Karoo Bonsai

 So, growing up in the 80's, I of course knew of the iconic movie, "The adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th dimension".  It was one of my Dad's favorites, for reasons then unknown to me.  I still have not watched the movie  (I know, shame on me!), but as I was painting this one, the title Buckaroo Banzai was all I could think of.  So, that is how the title was born.  I did a little digging on the subject and found out two interesting facts.  

1. The word in the title of the movie is Banzai.  According to Wikipedia, Banzai is "a traditional Japanese exclamation meaning "ten thousand years" of long life." It was apparently also tied up with Japanese kamakaze battle techniques, which I have no interest in.. so I didn't read any further about that.  

Now, the other word which is phonetically identical is Bonsai... This is a Chinese word that literally means "Tree in a pot".  Why does that make me smile?  Dunno.. but, I'm ok with that, and, since Miss Snail Hawkings is sporting a Bonsai tree, I decided to keep with this spelling.  All the same, I like the meaning of the other word, Banzai, so.. take from that what you will... and here is the painting :)

"Snail-Karoo Bonsai", oil on panel, 8"x8"
to purchase, please click here