Feeling Mighty Grateful

Acrylics, magazine images, handmade paper on stretched canvas, 12x12"

It's Thanksgiving Eve here in the States, and I'm feeling especially grateful for all the goodness in my life...which includes all of you, dear readers.

This painting was on my studio table when it collapsed a couple weeks ago.  I finished it this week in addition to the one below.  This one is 12 x 12 inches, the lower one 6 x 6 inches.

The bird painting began, as many of my pieces do, as a substrate to catch all the leftover paint on my palette.  This strategy seems to work for me; I often like the results of these on-the-fly pieces better than the original paintings -- but not in this case.  I like these two equally.
  

Acrylics, magazine image, handmade paper on stretched canvas, 6x6"

And I'm loving the textures I'm creating lately.  A friend asked me recently what it is that informs my art, what am I trying to achieve or capture?  Her words were different, but this is how I interpreted the query.  I've thought about the question a lot and realized that what it is for me, is creating art with a wabi-sabi feel.  New work that looks old.

My friend's question was also about whether I have any particular plans for artmaking this winter.  My response is no, not entirely. I do want to keep painting in line with my recent work, which I'm enjoying creating in addition to loving the finished paintings.  In February, though, I'll be taking Jane Davies' 100 Drawings on Cheap Drawing Paper online class, which I'm looking forward to. 

In other news ~ I ran across a very beautiful, very poignant article this week about the mother wound, which most women in our culture have operating in their psyches to one degree or another...that very wound that I spent this past summer healing.  Here's the article -- highly recommended.

The winner of last week's giveaway has been notified; thanks to all who entered.

This week's giveaway is another -- the last -- set of Jinhao fountain pens, medium nib.

To enter the drawing, either leave me an email here, or include your email address in the body of your comment to this post.  I'll do a drawing on Wednesday December 2 and I'll email the winner directly.  Don't hesitate to enter; your chances of winning are excellent.

If you're in the U.S., I hope you have a lovely, peaceful, safe Thanksgiving.  And I wish the rest of you a lovely, peaceful and safe week.  Thank you all for reading.  Blessings to you.

Surprise!

Acrylics and handmade paper on canvas panel, 8 x 8 inches

I had a big surprise on Friday morning, when a sweet young man knocked on my door and said he had a table for me -- the table that wasn't supposed to be here until next Tuesday!  How often does that happen?

So I'm all set up again in my newly-put-together studio.  I love this table -- it was a terrific investment, and it actually didn't cost very much.

The early arrival, though, did set my recovery from a small head cold back by a couple days.  I haven't been sick at all in three years, but this cold will be fully gone in a day or two.

Before I got sick early last week, I thought about going to a free community Thanksgiving dinner in Fortuna on Thanksgiving.  But have since decided against it.  Living as reclusively as I do, it's easy to forget that most people are sick with one thing or another half the time.  I typically spend Thanksgiving alone anyhow, so this year will be like previous Thanksgivings -- just another Thursday, albeit one on which to feel more grateful than usual perhaps. 

The little painting above was done close to a year ago.  Just a fun little thing with acrylics and handmade papers on a canvas panel.  

If you missed last Wednesday's post, I'm having a giveaway for a textile postcard.  Here's a link to that post.

See you Wednesday.  Peace and blessings.

Some Rain

We've finally had some rain over the past few days, thank goodness.  Not a lot, and certainly not enough, but hopefully it's a start.

This little piece, 6 x 6 inches on board, was what I created with the leftover gels and pastes on my palette when I got done with the other couple of pieces I painted a few weeks ago -- the ones which turned out horribly.  I like this one the best anyhow.  That black stuff is Liquitex Black Lava Gel.

The winner of last week's ATC giveaway has been notified.  Thanks to all who entered.  Even if you didn't win this giveaway, keep entering.

This week's giveaway is a textile postcard, 4 x 6 inches.  I'll send it to the winner in an evelope so you can send it on yourself, or just keep it.  Just write on the back in permanent ink, and stick a first class 49-cent stamp on it for domestic mailing, or $1.20 for international mailing.

To enter the drawing, either leave me an email here, or include your email address in the body of your comment to this post.  I'll do a drawing on Wednesday November 25 and I'll email the winner directly.  Don't hesitate to enter; your chances of winning are excellent.

Have a good week.  Blessings.

It's Always Something...

Acrylics, paper, pastels on stretched canvas, 10 x 10 inches

This is the third piece I did a couple weeks ago in a little series.  I like it the least of the three although it still engages me.  I did it on Hallowe'en; kind of looks like I might have.  The first piece is here, and second here.

My main studio table collapsed on Monday morning, for the second time in a few months, this time not to be fixed again.  I've got a real, workbench-type table on order and I'll take delivery on Tuesday, November 24.  So, no painting for a couple weeks.

I suppose it's part and parcel of my previously semi-nomadic lifestyle that such things as worktables and shelving units have frequently been jury-rigged, Rube Goldberg-type affairs.  Not too many steps above bricks-and-boards, like we all used in college. 

Such was my big worktable:  2 Black & Decker plastic (vinyl?) adjustable-height sawhorses, on which sat a 24x80" hollow-core door, on which sat a 36x84" piece of 1/2" plywood, on which sat my shelves, themselves constructed of plastic crates with 1x10" lengths of wood.  Well, the shelves will be the same in future, but they'll sit on a sturdy, heavy-duty, steel table with adjustable-height surface, the surface being 1-1/4" formica laminate, the table able to bear 1600 pounds.  This puppy isn't going to collapse.

I wouldn't mind having a real shelving unit on the other side of the room.  What's there now is a grid-panel unit I built out of flat grid panels and plastic connectors, 4- 14x14" cubes across and 3 down.  It's kinda wobbly, although it has its advantages.  It's actually just fine for now.  Maybe when I move I'll replace it; maybe not.  

Okay.  The winner of last week's 2-painting giveaway has been notified.  Thanks to those who entered.

This week's giveaway is a set of three ATC's (artist trading cards) that I made a while back.  These are 2-1/2 x 3-1/2" each.

To enter the drawing, either leave me an email here, or include your email address in the body of your comment to this post.  I'll do a drawing on Wednesday November 18 and I'll email the winner directly.  Don't hesitate to enter; your chances of winning are excellent.

Have a great week.  Blessings.

Busy Working

I'm online today for the first time since last Wednesday.  What a glorious three days I had with zero reliance on my computer.

This is a painting I completed on Friday.  Acrylics, papers, pencil on canvas, 12 x 12 inches.  Things really clicked with this one; I'm real happy with it.

I've also been fooling around with watercolors.  The piece below was done with watercolor pencils on canvas panel prepped with watercolor ground; 6 x 8 inches.

I've been collecting watercolor materials for eons, and thought I'd start messing around with them.  Some of the media I have goes back 25 years.  About time I used some of it, huh?

There's a giveaway in process now, winner to be drawn this coming Wednesday.  See this post if you'd like to enter.

Have a good week.  See you Wednesday.

Watercolor pencils on canvas panel prepped with watercolor ground, 6 x 8"

Going in Circles

Acrylics on stretched canvas, 20 x 20 inches

This is a 20 x 20 inch piece I painted at least a month ago.  It might be finished but I'm not sure.  Part of me is uncomfortable with all that white space; part of me is beguiled by the painting and doesn't want to change anything.  So I guess I'm calling it done, for now.

In the past few months, since I began awakening, I've been making amends to people, mostly people I'm no longer friends with.  Humbly apologizing for my unkind, dysfunctional behaviors in the past.  Taking full responsibility for what went wrong -- because I can now see others' behaviors towards me as simply each person's best strategy for dealing with what I was dishing out. 

It is enormously freeing to do this, although it comes with a lot of pain, the pain associated with finally allowing myself to see just how misguided my actions were in the past, and feeling, viscerally, the impact of the harm done to others.  Painful, but the right thing to do. 

The winner of last week's pen giveaway has been notified.  Thanks to those who entered.

This week's giveaway is a duo of small circle paintings, 5-1/2 inches square, on watercolor paper.

To enter the drawing, either leave me an email here, or include your email address in the body of your comment to this post.  I'll do a drawing on Wednesday November 11 and I'll email the winner directly.

Have a good week.  Blessings.

Turning Over a New Leaf

Acrylics, pencil, handmade paper on stretched canvas, 10 x 10 inches

I actually have started painting again -- three pieces since my last post.  This here is one of them.

I'm challenging myself to do something every day, to at least work on a piece each day.  We'll see how long this lasts.

Once I break the ice, then I'm good to go, until I stop for one reason or another.

Once again the "heavy" rain we were supposed to get on the North Coast has all but fizzled out.  Of course the day's not over yet, so who knows.  But the last few forecasted rains have been more like the sky spitting for a few minutes.  There's still the El Nino prediction for BIG rains here from January through March or April.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

If you didn't see/read last Wednesday's post and you're a fountain pen geek, I'm having a giveaway.  Go here to enter.  Drawing this coming Wednesday.  xx