101 BIRDS - Painting #1

This is the first thing I painted in 2012. I remember that the thought of a series of bird paintings just landed in my mind. I wasn't even thinking about art, but suddenly I knew that I need to decide on a format and allow myself to paint birds in whatever style I feel like. Isn't that weird? 

I also didn't think about the word for the year because I don't do that (except one year when I made up a word and it really didn't mean anything). This time a word planted itself and it's just there...

I don't even have think about it, it makes me aware of itself.

I wonder if this year will bring other surprises like that...

 Thank you very, very much for welcoming me back.
I had to laugh while reading comments and emails. because it seems like no one thought that I will really stop blogging... except me.

I guess I should learn not to be so black or white, and put more color in my life decisions. It is not the first time that I said or did something that I believed was the right thing, just to see it from a different perspective a month later and change my mind... Sometimes there isn't an "undo"...

Back to art. I have a lot of things to show, so I might become annoying with frequent blog posts for a while. I started a new series of paintings on January first, and am going to continue with it through the year. Can you guess who or what is the main character in the series?

You don't have to, I'll post the first painting tomorrow.

Happy weekend!

Hello!

Happy February!

Can we pretend that I didn't write the previous post?

The one where I said I will stop blogging?

 Can I just sneak back in? Maybe no one is listening, so I can...

 I missed my blog.

I missed you.

I'm back. I hope that some of you are here too.

In the vast ocean of blogs I thought that no one will notice if mine disappears. It is sometimes difficult to know and understand that real people look at our art and read our words. After receiving several warm and worried emails, I thought about it and felt bad for leaving without good bye.

I have been blogging for six years, and in that time had a privilege to meet many amazing people. I learned a lot from you and benefited from your feedback and kindness so many times... I am deeply grateful for it. I am not sure what happened, but at this point I feel a need to pull back, to go inside, to think. I have always been an introvert and I guess that side is pulling strongly right now.

I will continue to create, and will keep both of my etsy shops open, but will not post any more.

I wish you all the best.

Thank you.

Zorana

I attempted...

I attempted to paint a self portrait... And it didn't work. Whenever I try to put the lines and dark circles where they are supposed to be, they turn out too harsh and completely unnatural. 

Still, it was interesting to paint because I experimented. I wanted to paint on a base of gold gesso, which I don't have, so I painted a layer of gold and transparent gesso over it. I used burnt sienna, raw umber, titan buff, white and a touch of red for skin colors and it was interesting to see how they look on top of a warm gold background. I left a lot of gold showing through.

Is it still considered a self-portrait if it looks nothing like me?

Have a great week!

More of the same

I painted both birds at the same time, but didn't have time to prepare photos for both,
so I'm showing this one now.

 And because I usually love the close-ups as much, or more than the paintings,
I can't resist to post them too.

All colors again...

It was nice exploring a limited palette, but I can't stay for long from using all crayons in the box at the same time :-)