*grins*

Hi there! I’ve spent this afternoon painting, after a looong break, and man does it feel refreshing. I hope to have something to show for it soon. Stay tuned!

Please bear with me. This is a long post, but an important one for me. I had a creative misadventure that hit me so hard that I really just could NOT make myself paint for awhile. I felt like a sham- like I wasn’t REALLY a painter. And worse, after not painting for a couple of weeks, I really felt like there was nothing worth painting. I’d lost my ability to find anything around me beautiful, or interesting. I was bored, very discontented, and kind of lonely. I’ve really missed the fellowship of the artists I enjoy keeping up with!

Here’s the misadventure in retrospect…

The holidays. The busiest, most high stress time of the year. For whatever reason, I felt inspired to take on a project that was, I think, doomed from the beginning. I was trying to use a new field easel, switch the mediums I use to paint and clean my brushes, and I’d tackled a large, complicated painting of some pomegranates. Not from a photograph, either! This time, I figured I’d make myself a still life box! So I did! I cut an opening in one side of a nice sized box, gave the inside a dark, swooshy coat of paint, cut a window to shine my desk lamp through on one side, and got busy. Yay - I was going to paint fruit from life! The arrangement was absolutely striking! I was so proud! (Prematurely, of course) What a recipe for disaster!

The field easel was a very exciting gift that I received from my Dad for Christmas. A perfect gift! I’d been really struggling with trying to rig my standard easel somehow, so I could start painting standing up. Too much time sitting on my ass makes me a disgruntled gal! Talk about aches and pains! So I gleefully set this thing up, got it at an angle I liked, and went to town on my overly large and complicated pomegranate painting.

I was using an oil blend instead of the odorless mineral spirits & Liquin I normally paint with. After a few hours, I was feeling frustrated and stupid. I don’t think I’ve EVER had such a crappy painting session! I just had no clue what I was doing, or how to use this stuff to get my poor paints to behave the way I needed them to. It was evening, and I was using lamps to paint by. There was just no good way to place them- if I could clearly see the colors I was mixing, I had an obnoxious glare on the canvas. When I moved the light so it didn’t glare off the canvas, I couldn’t see what I was mixing. Bumble, bumble, bumble. Sooo… I did what any self respecting artist would do. I walked away, and figured I’d re-approach it the next morning. (Translate that: Stomped off in a disgusted huff.)

As I wandered back to my abandoned easel later that evening, I observed that one of the wing nuts on the legs had worked loose, and the freaking thing was slowly toppling over. Open bowl of this oil medium stuff, and a wet palette, about to tumble off onto the floor- *screams* Ok, ok, so I caught it, and averted the mess. I set it all back up, and tightened everything, and left it for the evening, having made SURE there was nothing on it except the crappy pomegranates. *coughs* I mean, work in progress.

The next morning, the OTHER leg had collapsed due to another stupid loosened wing nut. UGH!! My crappy painting was stuck face-down to the dinning room floor. I straightened up this lumbering monster, peeled my crappy art off the floor, and decided to wipe it, and start over. I was secretly relieved. I put some nice music on, and happily set to work. I completely changed my composition, and I think it’s really much better. On and on, with the freaking weird medium that I don’t know how to use. I felt like I’d forgotten how to paint! It was really a struggle to work with this stuff. After what was an embarrassingly long time working, I ended up with what I would consider a decent under-painting. By the time it was getting dark, the canvas was pretty well covered, and very wet. I was pleased. I was also a little nervous that my still life was starting to shrivel up under the hot light I’d used in my still life setup. I tried taking some photos, with no luck. The Photography Gods were angered with me, and no amount or oreos and milk would placate them. I could accept that, and move on.

I figured I’d take a break from working on the canvas and let it really dry well. I happily started doodling new paintings to work on, and futzed around the apartment for the rest of the day. Again- later that night a leg of the easel had let loose and collapsed in on itself- this time the thing was lurching backwards. Ugh. Fixed it. AGAIN.

The painting wasn’t dry enough to work on the next day. *sighs* I kept staring at it, seeing all kinds of things I needed to work on. I kept checking out my gradually perishing pomegranates. They certainly didn’t look the same as they had when I put the still life together!

Sooooo… after a break that was a lot longer than I’d wanted, I finally got back to work on it. The nightmare with the medium started all over again. I was clumsy, and couldn’t mix anything the way I wanted it. I was getting exasperated with all this mixing and mixing and wiping and mixing and more wiping. Finally, the freaking easel toppled again- this time, while I was USING IT. It toppled a lot quicker, too. No slow, painful decent this time. No. In a blink, I was wearing my palette, painting , and all my wet brushes were like pick up sticks all over my shoes. I was holding the easel. It had smacked me in the forehead as it lurched forward. I was totally incredulous at what had just happened.

Was all that for real? Like, can painting really go THAT badly? I’m here to tell you, Yes. Yes, it certainly can.

By the time I’d cleaned up the mess I was thoroughly ticked off. I collapsed the new easel back into it’s neat little boxy alter ego, and put all my painting stuff away. It’s stayed put away too! I had to throw out my still life arrangement, so I had no reference to work from anymore any way.

*I’ve learned from my mistakes. I swear. *

Today, I’m painting a small, relatively simple painting of a bunch of pieces of chocolate. I am painting from a photograph- because a photograph won’t melt under hot light, AND, I won’t be tempted to eat my subject matter.

I’m using my regular mediums. I’m using my old easel- sitting down. If I try to get back into working without solvents, I’m going to start with exercises- And make the change gradually. No more nightmare extravaganzas of problems waiting to happen. I honestly didn’t realize at the start of that last project that I was setting myself up for grief by working SOOO differently from what I’m comfortable with. The canvas was too big, the still life should have been photographed, I should not have tried to work on a dark painting at night (DUH.) and I should have taken it easy with switching mediums and brush cleaners. No wonder I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing! *rolls eyes*

Christeen ‘I should have been a freaking rocket scienst’ Swan, signing out.

This is more like it! This pic is pretty small- I’ll upload a better one in a few days. MUCH more satisfying than pastels!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Please, folks, the text and images are copyrighted- don’t use them without my permission!  (I’ve seen my blog posts copied verbatim on SPAM blogs!  For SHAME!)

  I always thought it was wierd that work in pastels are usually referred to as pastel paintings.  *smiles*  It was a kick to work on this, as I haven’t picked up a pastel in probably 3 years now.  I enjoyed playing around with the colors, but wasn’t too crazy about the rough texture of my paper (Mi Tienes, Black).  During one of my last forays into Art Store Bliss, I saw a pastel paper that looked like fine sandpaper.  I want to try it!

I swear, I’m like a wayward kid when I get into an art store.  I have to examine everything, admire each goody, check out this, check out that, imagine what I could do with that thing over there, and oo!  Look at that!  What’s that for??  Dreamy sigh…look at all the different kinds of paper…. *melts*

Yeah.  I usually have Iain with me, because at some point my checkbook and I need rescuing from all the creative temptation.  :)  What a great guy!

Hope you’re having fun, enjoying the holidays…  Merry Christmas!

It’s wonderful to be back at it! I’ve really missed painting & blogging. This was a delightful little study to play with, to get me back in the saddle. Starlight Mints on robin’s egg blue… nice and fresh! Christmas scents, colors, and flavors are so wonderful

I was suprised by how challenging this was- the highlights on the wrapper were the brightest value… so I had to really experiment with painting a ‘white’ mint that was subdued enough for the highlights to show up. I learned some good stuff with this one. Thanks for looking!

Oil Painting on Canvas. 8×10”

To view larger image, click on the picture, then select ‘All Sizes’ from the icons above the image.

My favorite part of working on this was…….. the whole thing!

The glossy red mug was really challenging and fun, and the marshmallows were really neat too. I know this painting has some really dominant red in it, but I had a great time playing around with the subtle colors through the rest of the painting. The marshmallows in particular were a great way to explore color. They had a golden glow in some places, and there were hints of lavender in the shadows, as well as reflections of muted red from the mug….cool stuff!

It was really challenging to get the marshmallows to ‘sit’ in the cocoa. In the early stages, they appeared to sort of ‘float’ over the cocoa. There were also too few of them. I mean- come on. Marshmallows! I ended up painting over all the floating marshmallows, and going back in to add even MORE… and worked carefully to make them swim…not float. *grins*

I’m really pleased with this one. Thanks for looking!

10×8″ Oil on Canvas

To view larger image, click on the picture, then select ‘All Sizes’ from the icons above the image.

I love a suprise. Sometimes the coolest suprises are the neat things in nature. Like the heart shape that only appeared when this berry was cut. Beautiful!

The core of this strawberry was fascinating, and not very easy to paint. The whole berry was tough to paint, for that matter.  I was really suprised to find the inner strawberry was nowhere NEAR as saturated a red as I’d imagined.  I suppose I never really paid much attention to the inside of a strawberry before.

Finding a way to mix a light, luminous red was harder than I’d imagined. Part of why I’ve been working with red so much lately is the challenge of it. It’s exciting to struggle with a wierd shade of red, then finally have some breakthrough. And it’s an invigorating, delicious color that I have a real affinity with.

I’ve worked on this for the better part of a week now, and I’m tickled with how it finally came out.

Thanks for looking!

I started this piece as an experiment in glazing. I carefully painted a black and white grisaille, then waited FOREVER for it to dry. Once I started working on it with glazes, I realized that I really hate this method of painting.

I’m impatient. I’m an ala prima, instant gratification kind of girl. Lesson Learned.

This may also be one of the tackiest pieces I’ve painted yet! It’s ghastly, and I’m vaguely embarrassed by it, but it’s so weird I wanted to share it anyway.

I really liked the way the shadows cut across the pewter plate, and the way the light played over the sliced apple. I wanted to work quickly, and exaggerate the colors in the fruit. This was a lot of fun to play with.

I’m not tickled with the pewter plate.  If I were to do this again, I’d use something else.  The dull finish, and cold grey color don’t really do it for me.  Life goes on. 

10″x8″ Oil on Canvas

Baking day! It’s autumn, it’s chilly, it’s Canadian Thanksgiving day, and I feel the need to bake. With apples. Mmm!

October- crisp air, longer nights and spooky excitement.

When I was a little kid, I used to be afraid of having a fatal encounter with malicious vines. I gave any bit of ground cover, or vine covered fence a wide berth as I passed. (I felt the same way about birds- curse you, Alfred Hitchcock!)

I can honestly say, I’m over it now I even have some vines growing here in the apartment. Here’s a watercolor of them. As I painted this, I reminisced about my childhood imaginings & couldn’t help smiling. Thanks for looking!

~SOLD~  Thank you Ann :)