What should we believe in next? Limon asks us. It is a good question. Apropos after all that has transpired in just one week. I don't have answers. But I know it is important to ask myself the question and then to listen patiently, even as I find myself inexorably drawn into my own rewilding. About the art: "There Remains the Mystery" is the first piece in an experiment with new substrates from Artefex (https://artefex.biz/). This one is on Oleopanel, lead primed smooth. And it is dreamy to work with. Moving swiftly and intuitively, letting brush, palette knife and fingers run free while remembering the wild places my feet have trod. Blissful. "A Cold Spring Runs" is a paint-over on crescent board. Using the same techniques except adding chopsticks and paper towels to increase texture and variation, allowing the wild child free reign in the paint. The November Reader Giveaway continues! Leave a comment on any of this month's blog posts to enter. One (or more) lucky readers will win an original piece of art FREE!
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The November Reader Giveaway begins today! Leave a comment on any (or many) blog post(s) this month to be automatically entered to win a free piece of original art. The winner (or winners) will be announced right here in the blog on November 25th.
About the art - another piece on dreamy Yupo. Beginning with a light sketch with thinned oil paint and working from the inside out. Experimenting with the tiny rubber wedge and carving back into the wet paint (note the intricate neck piece and the horns). Whoa! What fun! Keeping the light source on the left side, resisting as always the urge to overly define. I kept the color palette simple and neutral with exception of the pinks. They add an unexpected softness to this devilish woman. Now, where can I get that dress? Congratulations to Dotty and Thea! Your names were selected at random by Wonder Mike as winners of the October Reader Giveaway! Your prizes will be on the way to you in this week's post. Thank you to everyone who left a comment, read the blog and/or shared it with friends! Your participation, encouragement and support makes all of this both possible and incredibly, wildly rewarding. :)
About the art: inspired by our own family of crows, who pose for the camera nearly every day and somehow remain mystical and powerful despite their absolutely ridiculous antics and the silly sounds they make. Beginning with a gesso'd canvas and a light sketch with a brush and thinned paint, then slowly working from light to dark. Alternating between brush, rubber wedge and a squeegee (to get those delicious textures at the bottom of the painting) and between hard and soft edges. Letting the planets be wonky and wobbly while the center stage crows are crisp and noble. I think Rocky and Natasha would be pleased. It is the final week of the October Reader Giveaway! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to enter. One (or more) lucky readers will win a piece of original art - FREE! Now THAT'S a Halloween treat!
The October Reader Giveaway continues! Leave a comment (or several) on any blog post this month to be entered. The winner (or winners) will be announced on October 28th right here in the blog.
About the art: another inspiration image from the AI bot that launched me into another world of paint exploration. I asked for one thing, received another and then created something further afield than that. Beginning with a very old acrylic painting on arches watercolor paper, I sketched the figure and began laying in the background colors loosely, allowing one color to blend into the next for an ombre effect. Using light washes thinned with walnut oil, it takes a LOT of layers. I embraced some hard shadows on the figure - skeletal? Cyborg? Alien? Who knows? But she likes her fancy clothes and isn't afraid to wear them with a helmet. Using a small rubber wedge, I carved back into the wet paint layers in the dress to expose a bit of the underpainting. I cannot help but wonder what she's thinking... The October Reader Giveaway begins today! Leave a comment on any of this month's blog posts to be automatically entered. One (or more) lucky commenters will win a piece of original artwork - FREE! Now that's a treat for your Halloween bag. :)
As I wander through our collection of bones here at home (the by-product of being hikers and amateur naturalists), I can see the beauty in each of these relics; the very richness of existence itself. They tell a story - where they were found, what condition the bones are in, how the teeth are worn, which pieces are missing...and so my own bones, still inside my body, have a story to tell. And my muscles and teeth and the lines upon my face. And the hands that painted this piece. There is beauty in a life well-lived. About the art - the AI bot and I often play with skeletons. It seems to like them, and is very wiling to dress them up. The folder of inspiration images for cheeky skeleton compositions is rather large. But this one! The colors, the texture, the nod to traditional portraiture and the wistful gaze of a skeleton lady missing her love - it grabbed me by the hand and said PAINT! So I did. The focus in creating this pieces was making the forward figure three-dimensional and the portrait figure flat, along with the textured "wallpaper" which implies the natural decay of our surroundings. Another piece that leaped from the paint, intuitive and joy-filled in the creating. Thanks to everyone who participated in the September Reader Giveaway! Your comments make this blog space deeply meaningful and community-centered. I am so very grateful.
Wonder Mike chose three winners this month - congratulations to Gretchen, Carl and Sara! Send your mailing address to [email protected] and your original artworks will be on the way in a jiffy. Look for a new contest beginning a week from today. "Don't Expect This To Be Scientifically Plausible" oil on cradled wood panel, 24 x 12 x 1.5 inches. This item is unframed but ready to hang. (click on the image to purchase) Yes, don’t expect this novella to be scientifically plausible. It’s not. It’s a totally absurd, tongue-in-cheek mishmash of the most popular time travel tropes, juggled with admirable deftness and self-awareness by the angry old man in the center of the story. Time travel serves here only as a literary vehicle for funny and sharp critique of our human foibles and vices and prejudices. And if we can get an adorable, feathered, man-eating dinosaur as a bonus, all the better. - RE-ENCHANTMENTOFTHEWORLD.BLOG
About the art: oh, you may have guessed the AI bot loves rabbits. It is fully willing and able to imagine rabbits in every possible scenario, style and genre of art. Ask it for an angry rabbit at the end of the world, and you'll get dozens of grin-inducing inspiration images. This piece is all about that black rabbit and the vivid sky. Soft paint layers here on gesso'd wood panel. I kept the setting very neutral and understated, with the color focus behind the rabbit and within his eyes and nostrils. A hint of tiny utility lines running through the sky and resisting the desire to overly define the structures was key to shining the spotlight on the rabbit. I can't look at this piece without chuckling a bit. Sometimes embracing the absurd is just the thing to soothe the spirit. It is the final week to enter the September Reader Giveaway! Leave a comment (or more than one) this month to enter. The winner will be announced right here on September 30th.
Thank you to everyone who reads, comments and shares this blog space and the art within it. Giving away a portion of what I create is my way of showing my deep gratitude for all of you, dear readers! Thank you hugely!
But there is something otherworldly about standing in that unrelenting surf and trying to see and feel what is beneath you. On our last adventure, the rocks and beach were covered in jellyfish parts - glistening, undulating, sparkling like the agates we were hunting. I poked a lot of parts - making sure they weren't treasures. I grabbed a lot of parts rolling in the waves. There was mist, fog, frigid wind and an angry ocean that day. The two of us, standing in that madness, filling our packs with the largest agates we have yet seen, all alone on that endless, moody beach - a new dimension of beauty and strangeness and wonder. Did I rest my face on a large fish? No, I did not. But I would have if I could have. :) About the art: the AI bot and I have had a wildly good time trying to make mermaids. It doesn't get mermaids well, nor centaurs nor griffins. There are all manner of weirdly wrong results. But sometimes you get a sweet moment between a lady and a fish, like this one. Painted alla prima in two stages: the underpainting and initial sketch in the first go, and the subsequent layers all in a second go after letting the first one dry thoroughly. The inspiration image had a very limited color palette, with background and characters barely distinguishable from one another. I tried to maintain the integrity of that effect, while also pulling both lady and fish forward with some sculpting highlights. The final touches were the dripping paint from mouth of the fish and the highlight in the surface below the lady. Again, the temptation to go back in and overly define everything was hard to resist, but I wanted to keep the pale, fleshy, wateriness of the piece intact. So I walked away. The September Reader Giveaway continues! Leave a comment (or more than one) this month to be automatically entered. The winner will be announced on September 30th. On your mark, get set, GO!
About the art: this piece is inspired by an image the AI bot created, which was a surprise interpretation of the prompt I had supplied. But I often find those random, wonky images are just exactly what I needed (but didn't know I was looking for). When I saw this one, I connected with her right away - somewhat masked (the eyes) and stern looking, but with torn tights and mismatched gloves and a tutu that was clearly falling apart. Ha ha! As usual, the Yupo allowed a pretty rapid building of the layers of color, and the ability to create texture within the paint. Keeping a nice mixture of hard and soft lines was key with this one, along with varying the reds just enough that her chair stood out but did not distract from the figure. A bit of paint thinner was added to the edges of her skirt to allow some runs and smudges. Kind of a modern version of The Thinker. The September Reader Giveaway continues! Leave a comment (or several) this month to be entered to win a piece of original art! The winner will be announced here in the blog at the end of the month.
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