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!

A new painting

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.

101 BIRDS - Painting #38

Is it bad to say that I love the paintings from my 101 Birds collection? Whenever I finish one, I think it is my favorite. But then I look back and feel like a mom and her children... I love them all. I'm waiting to come to a "full" number, like 40..... or be half way - 50, and then I'll show them all together. It will be like a big, colorful and whimsical bird quilt.

PS - I am LOVING comments on my giveaway! So much fun to read what your favorite soul food is - both the real food kind, and one for the artistic soul. Thank you!

Textures make me happy

- 19"x11.5" - mixed media on watercolor paper -

In her hand

I finished one of the angels, but didn't have time to take proper pictures, so this little detail scan is all I have to show today.

I totally don't know where I'm going with color, but I do know that I'm adding as much texture as the paper will handle. Both strong and subtle textures... I hope they'll work together well :-)

I'm debating whether to go in with blues, greens, purples and make it dark, or make it almost white. I guess since there are two of them I could do both? What would you do?

Not just one...

Why paint only one angel, when I can paint two? 

This is just the beginning, the first stage. They almost look like mirror image, but who knows, they might turn completely different. I don't even have a color scheme in my mind at this time...

Taking it slow

 As much as I love painting extra fast, from time to time I like to take my time with paintings. And whenever several weeks pass without me painting an angel, I get this nudge to pick up the brush...

So that is what I started today. I don't know how much time I will have in the following days, and it doesn't really matter since I want to paint this slowly. Layer by layer, day by day.... I wonder how will it look at the end :-)