This week I want to tell you the story of someone who saw good bones and created a world out of them. A sanctuary of safety and love. A place for second chances, for hope, for joy and a long, happy life. Ally Remington works tirelessly every day (sometimes 24 hours a day) for the lives of farm animals who need a rescue, a rehabilitation, a second chance. I had the opportunity to interview Remington recently and, honestly, her story moved me to tears. The struggles, the celebrations, the hard work and the continued need for more. Below is a link to this interview on YouTube. It is a long one, but worth every minute. My husband and I take great joy in supporting this farm rescue, which is a permanent home for each animal taken in. If you are moved to support Wildlings Forest Sanctuary, thank you! Here is the link to the website. About the art: It is early in the year, but some murderous things are happening in the studio! This piece is a paint-over of a werewolf. The original painting was thick with texture, and that served this new abstract landscape extraordinarily well! Beginning with a rough sketch made with a medium sized brush laden with dark paint (basic composition - big shapes!) and then a thin layer of background and foreground paint to refine the shapes and the sketch. After some drying time, I worked from the inside - out - creating rocks, highlights, reflections and layers upon layers of color. Many weeks of drying time followed. Another layer on the background and foreground, a rough celestial orb in the sky, some pink clouds. Then the pallette knife - and OH OH OH did that ever work spectacularly over all the texture! It added grit and rocky-ness to the rocks, soft earthy edges to the water. I hit a couple of places with bright highlights, then another month of drying before the varnish. I think the werewolf is satisfied to be a part of this wild, rugged landscape. He feels at home in there.
Big thanks to the amazing Thea Fiore Bloom at The Charmed Studio Podcast for featuring MonstroUS in her recently newsletter! I am so grateful and delighted!
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About the art: an intuitive abstract landscape - working with brush and palette knife, I roughed in a basic composition based on hikes we've taken into mountainous areas. The layers of hills and ravines and rocks; the hugeness of the sky. Resisting the urge to get overly detailed or "precious" about the piece, I worked quickly to capture light and shadow, big shapes and highlights. Is that water? Is it snow? Is that the smell of rain off in the distance?
I am personally celebrating each and every one of you. Brave souls who follow their hearts, even if there is no path, no guidebook or map and no instruction manual. We don't need to know the way back. We can just take another step forward with glee. About the art: beginning with a gesso'd piece of Yupo and a color palette in my mind, I grabbed a wide brush and just ran with this one. I wanted to veer away from preciousness, from tiny details, from tightness and over-control. A wide brush and big strokes makes that easy! I drew a basic series of horizon lines with neutral paint, then began blocking in chunks of color. A wash of pale glow and the suggestion of a sun and its reflection. I worked all around those lights, ignoring them until the very end when I could cut in with the paint and reduce them to the most impactful size. I'm pretty stoked about this one.
About the art: a fresh canvas with a nice coat of gesso to begin this piece - no murdered underpainting! I began with a sketch of the form in thinned oil paint and roughed in the first layer of the background to refine the form. A long drying time. Beginning with the face and hair, then moving to the dress, leaving the hands and arms untouched until the initial layers on the rest were dry. A slow and thoughtful mark making with thinned oil paint to create the designs on the skin. Then the real fun! A wide, flat brush laden with paint moved with big gestures to create movement in the fabric - ooh la la! Building darks over many weeks. A final coat of paint on the background, a looooong drying time and then the varnish. She's a big girl, and a powerful presence. I am smitten!
Hikes require an entirely different set of physical accomodations, and rockhounding in the ocean yet another. But this is the price of reaching that feeling of unleashedness - like Wonder Mike feels when we're at the beach and he finally, FINALLY gets to run wildly up and down the sand, racing far away from us and then zooming back, giddy with his freedom. Oliver is so right - we need also all the good attachments to that origin (wilderness) that we can keep or restore. And so off we go, Wonder Mike, too, for another brief getaway into all that is wild and wonderful. I can hardly wait!
About the art: I often use people and pets as inspiration for fantasy images. In this one, I used Wonder Mike as a jumping off point, and ended up with this gazelle-like soulful dog, who clearly does not belong on a leash. For this one, many, MANY layers of thinned oil paint to create the bold, abstracted shapes and colors in the background, and to create the shadows and fleshtones of the dog. Alternating between wide, wet brushes and thin, dry brushes for movement and detail. Resisting the urge to define the background, allowing the dog to come forward and the leash and its shadow to feature prominantly. As with the controversial gun in a recent painting of Pippi Longstocking, the leash symbolizes so many things. What does it mean to you, dear reader?
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!
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. :)
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.
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!
It's the July Reader Giveaway! Leave a comment (or more than one - each comment counts as an entry!) on any of this month's blog posts. At the end of the month, one (or more) lucky winners will be selected at random to receive a free piece of art. Huzzah!
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AuthorLola Jovan 
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