Greetings from Planet45

As the days shorten and the weather cools I do find myself giving more and more thought to what I feel like drawing/painting/creating. There are a whole host of things clamoring to be let out just under the skin of my thoughts. Yesterday I drew a few very rough sketches of things I would like to do, and then started playing with shapes that felt perfect. A few very well defined shapes came out with nearly no correction needed- pear, a split avocado, eggplant, pumpkin. One of my favorite things is a split canteloupe I painted years ago. Fruits, some veggies, then. Shapes that flow onto the sketchpad, objects with wonderful colors- the deep black-purple of eggplant, the greens of avocado and pear, oranges of canteloupe and pumpkin.

Nice places to start…

Unfortunately my  camera needs batteries to munch. But I think I have pictures of other shapes I have liked.

Tropical Storm Hanna is, as they say, racing (or alternatively barreling) up the east coast today. It’s horribly muggy and there is absolutely no attraction contained in the prospect of going outside.

So I thought maybe I’d finish painting something I started oh, months ago.The scene: a little outbuilding we have on our property, surrounded by trees and a beautiful blooming cherry. It was fun the day I started it because the cherry tree was so striking. And the sky was striking. I got the sky just about right, started to block in the outbuilding, shaped the trees and got the pink right for the blossoms and then hit a roadblock composed of a million things I hated. The painting became Not Fun. A few brushstrokes later it Really Stunk.

So this is the failure. I thought I’d work on it today but within a dozen brushstrokes it became evident that this must be gesso’d over (you know, reused).

Here are a few things I learned:

1) I hate painting or drawing anything that is straight in real life. This would include buildings.

2) When I start using acrylic as though it were watercolor, I should probably be painting in watercolor.

3) Don’t run out of paint halfway through.

4) When painting, don’t leave the middle for last. You can always leave a painting unfinished on the edges, but unfinished in the middle is Very Bad.

I’ve done one acrylic that was okay, and a couple that were personal. The Okay One I gave to my mother, who bless her heart, professionally framed the painting. This act and expense on her part made my painting more real somehow and she displays it proudly. It’s the first thing you see when you go in her house. I don’t think I have a picture of it, most people would not like it at all, but my mother loves it and that’s a great reason to make a painting. To please my mom.

Here is one that pleases me. (It’s sideways because I have to figure out how to flip it in wordpress). It pleases me because I was thinking loving thoughts and without planning it, my daughter’s face began to emerge from the heart in the center. When I saw she was forming there I worked to coax it out. It looks like she did, at that age, when sleeping. Most people would not like it at all, but I love it and that’s a great reason to make a painting. To please myself.