New Blog

Hi friends, you can find my new blog at www.artjunkee.blogspot.com

MADusa

Oil bar on canvas primed with grounding medium, used some brushes and paddles. Totally screwed one up before this, learn, learn, learn. Don't give up.

Mighty Meg

Oil bar on watercolor paper. Struggle too much tack. Want to try a subrate that I can scrape off but will not becompletely without absorbtion. Straight canvas no good too slippery. Getting closer with these sticks but they're still tough to work with. Little brush gets detail, But complexion gets muddied. Started with underlay of blending stick, flesh tone and white to where areas are raised. Added in shadows, lot of scraping back and forth. Tough, but want to learn. Stubborn.

oil bar portrait

oil sticks are tricky. But they are fun, but the right surface makes all the difference I think. She was kind of a quick sketch, but I had fun with it.

New Blog

Hey friends, fellow artists and bloggers. I'm starting a new one It's called Mistakes not Withstanding. www.mistakesnotwithstanding.blogspot.com. Check it out if you get a chance.

I'll paint tomorrow I hope...

Typically, I hate rain.

It makes the sky look like an iron shell threatening to crash down on me at any moment.
It also makes my wavy hair frizz in a profoundly unflattering manner. In darker moments, I wonder if God isn't weeping.

Yes, it can get that gloomy sometimes.

But there was good rain. And I'm not talking about the rain that the terminally cheerful among us proclaim "yes, but we need it, think of the crops!" I live in a fairly urban area--there are no crops that I can rally, and even if there were, the eco-system does not need me to cheer it on. It's far bigger than I, and one of the very few things I will stubbornly admit is out of my control.

But, I remember warm summer rain from when I was a kid. When as a child one could go out and run in it, let it soak your skin, and yes laugh. I remember the beauty of watching the water collect and braid down sewer drains, the iridescent rainbows made from gasoline leaks on the roads. The joyful splash of a gigantic puddle. We greeted the rain with a joyful, lusty response, we met it head on, and challenged it.

So maybe it isn't just the rain. It's our learned mature, adult fear and aversion to it. As adults we cower from it. Hide beneath our umbrellas, run from our cars to shelter as quickly as possible.

We would certainly not linger in it, let it fall on our face, or leap like a half crazed lunatic into a giant puddle.

In my case, any and all observers of this behavior would simply nod in a collective affirmation of a long presumed opinion: "She is just odd."

But what would they really see-- defiance, a pursuit of joy, and wonder?

And would I be brave enough to be that odd, to find that long lost kid who just didn't care. Instead of the adult who has long since put away notions of embracing happiness wherever and whenever one finds it.

Even if it's just warm, soft drops of water on one's face.

still....trying....

that's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight, losing my religion.

Trying to keep up with you, and I don't know if I can do it.

Oh no, I've said too much, I haven't said enough.--REM

What can I say they speak to me....especially lately....I cannot verbalize the feeling of estrangement from life as I knew it sometimes. I feel that I am crossing a shaky bridge ready to give way at any step. Yet if I make it, things will be good....So I persevere....sometimes angrily, sometimes resignedly.

trying

don't fall on me....

buy the sky, and sell the sky, and lift your arms up to the sky, and ask the sky and tell the sky...don't fall on me....

--REM

I am so drawn to the beauty of the lyric. The anguish I hear in the music draws me in so deeply. I wonder how in their depressed state with their lyrics they create beauty. These lyrics have been my background, my soundtrack....don't fall on me. I struggle to create, when all I want to do is sit in bed and read fantasy, because reality has become so oppressive. I push myself, and my music stays at my side, holding my hand, guiding me, leading me. I am thankful...

Am in the middle of a show and will add these two. Really having fun with the collage. The pink one is a redo, just went breezily at it and she came to be. Wish I could always be that way....

In the Green

I need to touch this up. The hands look sunburned. There needs to be more contrast. Getting there....

Thoughts....

Which thoughts, huh?? I am staying away from beginning with watercolor crayons and use them only for light touches in the end. Hair is always my nemisis. I covered most of hers up here. A little busy but I just love movement in a picture.

Iris

struggle, struggle, struggle, but I do like her face. I stopped going straight in with caran de arch watercolor crayons. Her face is almost entirely acrylic titan buff, aliz crim, raw sienna. I just don't know what to do with the composition sometimes....going to stay away from caran de arche to start and just get a good acrylic base down for skin tone....

Bluesy

Had fun with this one too. I think my next one will have pink hair. I just love to work this way--I like the theme.

Bored

How a woman this beautiful can be bored--I don't know. She came together with lots of layers. The likeness is of my niece. This is in the big journal.

Find Your Garden

I pulled away from faces because I just felt so redundant, but it's just a signature for me--I don't know. I don't even sign my work, in my mind if it's a face it's mine. That's how weird I'm getting. But this was such a mess originally. I started with markers, then went to water solubles/caran de arche, then acrylic then collage then titan white. A mess and back, but a fun ride.

Red Romance

dipping my toe into journal collage, not as happy with this one. I do like the face--of course, but I'm trying to break out of what's safe. Too much black, too much contrast. Will try another.

The Rapture of Color

Leaving portraits is scary for me, but I will never grow as an artist if I stay in my little safe place of what I'm used to. I just don't have that sense of symmetry or the abandonment that goes with winging it or working intuitively. I'm weird....for an artist....But gosh I'm trying....

still working on it

I am working on a lot of things including this self-sort of-portrait. I kind of get Frida Kahlo now. I do spend a lot of time alone, and who do I paint but myself....this is in a journal-- smaller moleskine.

Annie in Tulips

Repeating on a theme. Trying, still, to stay loose and painterly. Like collaging the tulips in. These are a print of a watercolor I did two years ago.
This is my big new moleskine--so I might consider framing this one. Just played started out a mess, but evolved. Trust the process. Art makes me realize that I don't trust easily, especially when it comes to my own ability.

Trying...

Still struggling with career issues. Trying to embrace the cactus as gingerly as possible. Steel doors and unanswered calls, will have to make my way.
Awakening, could there be new possibilities...??