Painting a nightmare

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling black birds in my hair. The noise of flapping wings and movement felt so real... I tried to escape the feeling, but it followed me through the day. Finally, I gave up, and put it to the paper in the best way I could. 

My big moleskine journal is the best place to catch anything I want to express.

 I didn't paint it on the easel (pictured above), just wanted to see how it looks. I am so extremely in love with my easel that I have to see how anything looks on it :-) I painted it on the table (as seen bellow) using only a brown and white. 

Black birds are gone. Colorful ones are soon to come.

Dark and light

This is the last painting in a series that I envisioned in my mind. It might be my favorite one because of the atmosphere and textures that (unfortunately) don't transfer well to the screen.

A little bit gloomy for this bright day, but somehow feels right to me.

Rose petals

I think I lost my written word. Many thoughts in my head, but they are not flowing to my fingertips. Color and layers and texture and paint stories are luckily still here :-) I hope you like it.

Thinking about...

I used to put words in every painting I made. It never seemed to be finished without some written story, or thought. I still love that, but find it interesting that often no words are needed for a story to be told. 

It took many, many layers until I was happy with the result.

Light and dark

I'm still in brownish, muted tones. Trying to play with darks and lights. For some reason that intrigues me and I am trying to push myself to go darker or lighter that I usually would.

Big painting, small head

New art supplies

Many months ago I came to the conclusion that I don't need any more paint unless I use up some of my favorite colors. It really isn't difficult to mix colors, so there is no need to purchase every color in the box. And then I saw these matte Blick colors and couldn't resist the urge to spend less than $10 for 7 paint bottles. Why did I choose pastel colors, when I'm in the "dark period" I don't know.

 Look how pretty they are!!!!! Happy blobs of paint!

On a piece of gessoed rosin paper (you can see me using it in videos here), I started playing with my new, happy colors. Then I followed prompts from one of the pdf-s on theartstronauts.com and had fun with it. 

I decided to cut my two paintings into circles for no reason at all.

Fun!

Early birthday gift

This is an early birthday gift from me to me! I am joking.... my birthday is in November, way to early to think about now, but it did take me a very long time (10 years!) to give myself a permission to have a real easel, so it feels like a real gift. Many times I painted something that looked ok to me while on the table, but the moment I put it in a vertical position - it was all wrong. A good example is the angel that's peeking at the top of my easel (and is going to be painted over as soon as I can get to it). 

I purchased the easel through Amazon and couldn't be happier - it came in two days, fully assembled! It is very sturdy, large enough for big canvases, easy to use and takes really a small amount of space. I thought maybe someone else could benefit from the information, so here is the link.

Happy creating!

A new painting

Trees are flowering. Hello February!

Letting go

It is said that we paint ourselves over and over and over again. If it is so, then this is the most true self-portrait I ever painted. I don't mean the physical resemblance (far off, and I didn't even try). More that it is a true portrait of my feelings. It is also the favorite thing I painted in 2013. Not sure why I didn't show it earlier... maybe because it came from the place we usually guard and keep for ourselves. I took pictures of the process, which I hope you will enjoy. 

-24"x36", mixed media on canvas-

After helping our daughter move far, far away and officially becoming an empty-nester, I tried releasing my emotions through a Flora Bowley way of painting. No thinking, just colors and music and layers... Here are the first stages of the painting.

And then the subconscious started working and she emerged, and the two birds with their beautiful wings spread out were suddenly there too...

I didn't fight it. I knew exactly that I was painting my children, and that it was me there, letting them go, calm and sure, and accepting of the new phase in our lives.

Interesting how those things happen.... It felt good.

When I finished the painting I was completely ok with all of it and ready to celebrate what comes next.

Can you believe that it is the last day of January? Already?

xoxoxoxo

101 BIRDS - Painting #39

I did as I said I would in the previous post. I set the timer for one hour, found a piece of paper that has been pre-cut for my bird series (8"x10") and attacked it. It wasn't difficult to find a reference photo, as walking on this beach is still very fresh in my mind.

I picked these two and did my loose interpretation of the scene.

While I was painting, my dear neighbor was kind to bring me oranges she just picked from her tree, and I couldn't resist snapping a picture to remind me how simple moments like this one make life wonderful :-)

So, this is painting #39. I better speed up with this series, if I ever want to see it finished. Luckily, I enjoy painting birds so much that it shouldn't be a problem.

If you want to see other paintings from my 101 Birds series click here.

xoxo

Scattered....

I have a list of things I want to do - paint my bird series, paint on canvas, try a new technique, open my neglected journal, re-shoot some finished canvases.... and I can't seem to focus on any of those things. Time is slipping by while I read a blog post, click on a link, listen to music, put a load of laundry... YIKES! Why is it sometimes so hard just to pick up the brush and start?

I think I will put a timer on and as soon as I hit "publish" on this post force myself to paint for an hour and see what happens.

Until then, I'll leave you with the last angel I painted last year. Her "sister" sold, so they are not a pair anymore.