A Preponderance of Pondering

​"A Preponderance of Pondering" - oil on Yupo, 19.75 x 25 inches. Available here, at Artfinder and at Bluethumb.

Tis the season for pondering.

​Brisk, blustery, overcast, drizzly and growing darker as the days shorten.  The monsters have left the studio to hang out at the pub, and here at Malarkey Central there remain some random rabbits and this painted lady, who claims to be the spokesperson for contemplation.

Ponderers of the world, do you feel the fall?   Are your thoughts deeper, richer, more velvety as winter approaches?  Are your reveries more reflective? Do you roll and ruminate, cerebrate and speculate?  

A Preponderance of Pondering

Sometimes, my cogitation causes agitation.  Deliberation and examination makes a conflagration of my harmoniousness.  Yup, over-thinking can make a fine mess.  

But channel it down the right rabbit hole and you might just find the lyrics to an as yet unwritten musical about rabbits.  Which might lead to painting a passel of lagomorphs. All of whom are quite excited to meet you, dear reader.  Just as soon as we complete this particular ponder.

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​About the art:  If I haven't gushed enough about oil on Yupo, let me gush a little more.  Building layers on Yupo is delicious.  And carving back through those wet layers with a small rubber wedge creates the most satisfying textures and lines (for example, the highlights in her headpiece)   I wanted to build the background layers to suggest but not define, to provide a slightly abstracted setting and incorporate the figure. Dragging a wide rubber wedge through the wet paint created just the right amount of line, and a little massaging of the paint with the wedge smoothed out unwanted hard edges easily.  A few blops (that's a technical term, right?) of liquin-thinned  red for the drips as the final touch.

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There is still time to check out The Downside of Lycanthropy online and at Unlimited IPA in Portland.  This guy has had a particularly hard go of it.  He'd love a. hug...just as soon as he washes away the evidence. :)