It gets more complicated and Beyond the Toes...

Lately my paintings have been a great experience.  I am still, as Paul Frets once said to me, arm wrestling them down, but I am enjoying the struggle more than ever.  I am at the point in my development when all of the past methods are coming together and having a party on the canvas!  Complicated systems of colors and textures that add joy to my life. I can't imagine a life without paint.  Winston Churchill once said that and I may have mentioned that quote before but it bears repeating for us happy artists!

I still have 20/20 vision but the reading vision is a mess.  For a while I could put my feet out straight in front of me, attach the writing to my toes and read away.  Now I think I am going to need an extra pair of glasses to put my glasses in the case.  I guess one pair will have to stay out.  My husband can top that.  He actually asked people at his office where his glasses were.  He couldn't find them anywhere.  He was wearing them, and not on the top of his head.  On his eyes.  Bleary eyed computer nuts!  Still working away and I can still see so I just keep going.....

The Mindy Project has been off for a while.  Hope to see it and my drawing, "Reaching Out", in her office again soon!

Don't forget my specials in the Limited Time section of Fine Art America!  Large canvas prints of favorites at 40% off.

Reaching into the Past

Since we are snowed in I am able to work more than usual. I am excited about my current portrait of my husband and son. The photograph that I am basing the painting on is twenty-five years old. Since then I have been through so many different approaches to oil painting that they are all converging in my head as I paint this one. I started out using the traditional thin-to-thick method of layering oil paint but I have since explored many levels of the impasto technique. I still apply the paint in layers. Most oil paintings are made that way but I am often asked if I use a palette knife as the brushwork is visible on close inspection.

It is so exciting to look at the photograph and make visual decisions partly based on the photograph, partly based on my personal expression, and partly based on combining various impasto techniques. Painting is a magic act. I balance between control and accident and arm wrestle it down as Paul Frets once told me.

Here is another painting I want to add to my portfolio when the weather improves and I can get a good outdoor shot.

Dream Paintings

I live to paint and I dream to paint. I have actually painted from some of my dreams. I have been having dreams about painting for the last ten years. The paintings are usually mine but they are different. There is a swirling movement in them and a lot of an icy blue that I use but it is more dominant in these works. Also, there are no dark colors, only light. Sometimes I dream about paintings that are done by students but, of course, they are done by me as they are paintings I have never seen before. It is a strange experience to dream up paintings. I enjoy the experience. "Swirling Colors", and "Contemplation" are two of these paintings and can be seen in my portfolio on Fine Art America.com.

I have come to a stopping point on the three paintings that I have been working on for several months and am ready to put them away before I become so involved that I lose what I have achieved. I am looking forward to my next endeavors which I hope I can start soon. I have to go in for a hospital procedure in the next week or so and I will be involved with the prep work for that so I know I am going to be grinding away until I can get started. I have three mountainscapes in mind. I am never completly happy with any of my paintings but I am most dis-pleased with my mountainscapes so I am going to be ambitious and work on three at once. One of my teachers, Paul Frets, once told me that paintings have to be arm-wrestled down. I should have great biceps after all these years.