The Goddess of Spring Has Company

Despite feeling grotty all day today I did manage to get my ideas for the set "Goddess of the Seasons" on to paper.  I already sketched Spring and have started the canvas but to be honest I struggled through the day volunteering at the ski clubhouse and then working for an hour at the library and knew that even if I did drag myself into the studio I was likely to regret it.  Having made custard for Lovely Man which first resembled hot yellow milk and then, with a little extra custard powder added, not only went lumpy but caught the bottom of the pan so it had little brown lumps in it, I nearly burst into tears!  So you can imagine what it would have been like if I started painting and it all went wrong!  Anyhow as I did a convincing performance of a dying swan on the couch I did find the strength to pick up a pencil!  So with out further ado - although of course a little sympathy, should you wish to convey it, won't fall on stony ground - here is Summer, Fall and Winter.

Temper Tantrum

I think my goddess was just a little ticky about having no clothes on in these temperatures!  She proved to be more than a little cantankerous when I tried to apply her skin tones!  In fairness it could have been that the canvas had not been primed as well as the other one I got from Micheal's.  The first one I did I got away with getting straight onto it without any Gesso (it said it was primed ready for painting).  This one however, seemed to repel the watercolor crayons even when I added some acrylic.  It was all very frustrating and not at all conducive to a 'nice morning painting'!  So I left her to contemplate her behaviour and went out with my friends to the hockeyville event down at the lake.  This evening I went back to her.  She wasn't much more co-operative than she was this morning but after an hour of patiently layering acrylic and more pigment from the crayons picked up with a brush I was, at last, able to say I felt satisfied.  So hopefully that's the hard bit done.  Once she is acclimatized to being in the nude she will hopefully be a little more helpful!

And Another!!

It's official.  I am addicted...to painting Goddesses!  The other day as I starred at the bare walls of my new dining room it occurred to me that perhaps I could do a set of paintings for that room.  Whilst taking part in Tam's M3 course one of the other artists drew a goddess in a beautiful pose that looked as if she were standing with the wind, her hair was flying out behind her, her dress too and she looked amazing.  The artist concerned wasn't sure but I suggested she looked magnificent and would look good as the Goddess of Autumn, with lots of amber and russet leaves about her in the wind.  I joked with her that she could do four one for each season and make a set.  That's when the seed was sown and I have pondered it since.  So last night I flicked through some photographic poses on the net and saw one I liked, then fished out a Klimt calendar that a friend bought me a few years ago and picked out some themes/styles that I thought would work with spring.  And so my Goddess of spring was born onto a sheet of A4!  Today she is being transferred onto a 18" x 24" canvas.  Lovely Man is off to play in the snow with his new friend which means I get a couple of hours in peace in my studio to play!  Woohooo!

Finished!!!

Oh My Word!  I just took a photo of my Goddess in daylight!  I am just so proud of her.  Having never painted a canvas any bigger than A4 AND I only really started painting seriously about 8 or 9 months ago (save for the stuff I did at secondary school) I am just amazed at myself!  Of course she isn't going to make it to the Tate or any other grand art museum or gallery, and she did have a few little 'accidents' along the way but to me she is perfect and I love her!  To be fair though I am fickle so probably the next one will be the love of my life too ha ha!

 

I finished the detail on the butterfly whilst watching Harry's Law last night!  I find it impossible to just sit at 'watch' TV these days, I have to be doing something else at the same time!  The butterfly is actually a sort of failed attempt at making a 3D butterfly in flight.  I cut some pretty colored paper from a glossy magazine and stuck it, face down, to  Habotai silk and then I thought I could dry it moulded over something curved.  This clearly wasn't going to work so I decided to dry it flat and then sew beads on it and build up the undersides with molding paste on the canvas.  Then I just chickened out altogether and applied it as it was to the canvas with Matte Gel Medium and detailed it with black ink, white gel pen and gold pen! 

Almost There

Late last night I noticed that the lovely Tam had posted this weeks video tutorials and of course I just had to watch them both before bed!  So today I have played...ALL DAY!  Well nearly, we had more snow so had to shovel the driveway, but apart from that...I played.  So here she is, almost there.  I still need to do the detail on the butterfly - gel medium takes a while to dry.  I also want to paint the sides of the gallery wrap in gold acrylic too.  I used a little rub on gold leaf which needs to be sealed so I will give it a light coat of acrylic matt varnish when I'm happy that I have it totally finished!  It isn't the best photo but the best I could do under electric lighting!

A Few Iccle Hiccups!

The course of true love never doth run smooth...and neither does a painting!  Oh she started out so well, my Goddess of Freedom, then yesterday I collaged the dress.  My favorite little piece of paper was too thin and wrinkled when dry.  Then today I decided to paint in the lounge on the coffee table so I could keep Lovely Man company.  BIG mistake.  You see the coffee table is quite low and I sat on the floor.  The bottom of the canvas was quite hard to get at so I decided to turn her upside down.  Then I tried to use a white gel pen, the sort that you push down on the nib to activate the release of ink.  Yup, you guessed it. A large dollop of runny white ink started to run downwards toward her chin.  Panic stricken I tried to dab with a tissue.  The brown 'waterproof' ink that I was using for the detail on the dress decided that it wasn't waterproof after all and smudged onto her shoulder!  So anyhow I have given her first aid, but I may have to schedule her in for more radical surgery, an robust acrylic skin graft, tomorrow!  But this is her for now.  I still love her and already have a space on the wall ready for when she's finished.

*Squeeee* I had the best morning!

OH  MY  WORD!  Have I just had such a fun morning or what?  I went off to the studio to paint and stuff whilst Lovely Man scoffed at me, he thinks collage is for kids!  I have tried to educate him that it is actually 'mixed media' but he is having none of it!  Anyhow Look See what I did so far, and just for a change I am loving her right from the word go!  She obviously still has a long way to go and I am not rushing her, so anyhow what d'ya think??

AND....just to send me into hyperdrive mode a lovely lady Helen says she L.O.V.E.S one of my bags on Etsy!! Ha!  Need to go lie down as I think I am about to have an attack of the vapours Te He!

My Goddess of Freedom

Well today I finally got around to starting that canvas.  Isn't it just so uncanny that despite being all fired up and excited about doing something new - for me painting a canvas bigger than A4 more than actually painting - we often put off starting for fear of 'messing it up'!  So yesterday I watched Tam's video tutorials and I read, and re-read the PDF files.  Today after a lot of procrastination I finally made myself sit in front of the darned canvas and draw!  And can you believe what happened?  I not only got my Goddess sketched out I actually like her!  Not only that I rifled through several magazines and my fabrics and managed to find an abundance of suitable stuff for the collage! So here is the work in progress, the photo is not very good because I just couldn't get the lighting right in the studio now it's late, but i think you can get an idea of her.  She started out as the Goddess of Love but then I decided I thought she was really the Goddess of Freedom, whichever!  Love sets us free anyhow so both are apt!

I've Been Framed Guv!

Well actually I haven't personally but remember the painting of Amber, aka The Angel and The Unicorn?  The painting made it safely across the pond and yesterday I received an e-mail and a photograph of it nicely framed ready for a certain little girl's birthday.  I am actually quite proud of it and pleased that it has made someone else happy too.

As for my more recent canvas....that is still very much a work in progress.  I fell out of love with it big time.  The bead gel and the self leveling gel didn't give quite the effect I was aiming for.  However, having left it alone for a couple of days I started to tweak it last night.  I figured it wasn't going up on the wall as it was and seemed destined to go in the garbage anyhow so anything else I did to it couldn't make things any worse!  And would you believe I'm starting to like it.  Bit like Cathy the other day... her painting "got past the uglies", I now know exactly how she felt!  So that will be photographed when it is done.  Lastly I am just so excited to by starting Tam's on 17th.  I have got no less than 4 BIG canvases, 18 x 24 inches, and having never painted anything that size I can't wait....SO EXCITING!

Language Timothy!

Lovely Man and I were just sitting watching a film this evening, well he was watching I was half watching.  I'm not good a TV, I'm easily distracted - by the laptop, my own thoughts, half finished paintings in the studio, an idea for a purse design, or some other whimsy that pops into my head.  Suddenly at end of one of the short clips, before the adverts, he announced "Well that is a dichotomy isn't it?"  I thought for a moment.  I liked the feel of the word, on my tongue, in my head, I repeated it several times to myself and then declared "I like that word"!  I do.   I love words, the English language.  I love the feel of them, the sound of them and the pictures that they conjure up in our mind.  I love how, with the right word, or a different word to the norm, you can make a sentence, even a whole story sound so much more interesting.  Would you believe I have a huge dictionary at the side of the bed, and sometimes when I have a mind to, I like to pick it up and wander through it to see what I can find before I go to sleep?  My good friend, Lorrie, loves words.  My favorite word from Lorrie was 'propensity'.  So now I have two.  Propensity and Dichotomy.  I think I will start another challenge for myself, to find a new word that I like the feel of and use it in a blog post each week!   Ha ha! Is there anyone else out there that loves words?

Two Hours of Pure Bliss

squirreled away in my studio!  First I tidied, I'm just so bad and dumping things on my desk when I'm too busy to put them away properly, and then I pay for it when I want to paint cos I have to tidy it all away before I can start!  Today my Glass Bead Gel and Self Leveling Gel arrived so I was anxious to play.  I have never used either of these mediums before but I recently saw a canvas and instantly knew that this is what they had used to achieve the wonderful textures.  I also recently bought some gorgeous fabric to make cushion covers for the lounge and Lovely Man has knocked a hole in the wall to make an archway into the 'new' dining room.  So I had this idea.  I love the colors and the flower pattern on my new cushion covers and thought that the design would lend itself perfectly to the canvas I had in mind, and if i painted it for the lounge it would all sort of co-ordinate.   So here is the cushion...

AND  here is the first stage of the canvas...

First I drew the pattern onto a 16"x16" canvas.  Then I painted the background with a nice  mocha shade in acrylic.  Tomorrow I will be starting on the outlines, first with a pale yellowy gold acrylic and then centre line of black bead gel to create a stain glass window effect.  Lastly the gray and blue petals will be done with self leveling gel which, I understand, will dry to a smooth High Gloss finish. Et Voila!