Ordinary Miraculous

"Ordinary Miraculous" - mixed media on cradled gesso board, 16" x 20" x 1".  Ready to hang (back has been pre-wired for hanging).  Available here and at Artfinder.

If you spend a day gazing at the majesty of Ornulf Opdahl's paintings, it is likely you will want to dive into an abstracted landscape right away.  Ooooooooooooooh.  Yes. Please.

Which is exactly what happened this week in the studio.  Beginning with an inspiration photo from a residency in Ireland  (another oooooooooooooh) and then following the muse with squeegee and rubber wedge tool.  Ok, and fingers.  And paper towels.  And chopsticks. And a dry brush.

Ordinary Miraculous

"We live and have experiences and leave people we love and get left by them.  People we thought would be with us forever aren't and people we didn't know would come into our lives do.  Our work here is to keep faith with that, to put it in a box and wait.  To trust that someday we will know what it means, so that when the ordinary miraculous is revealed to us we will be there...grateful for the smallest things." CHERYL STRAYED, TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS

The ordinary miraculous seems to be popping up everywhere I look.  Though I am tempted to hop up and down and squeal like a kid on the way to Disney World, I am trying very hard to pause and be grateful before doing so.  Wonder Mike enjoys an enthusiastic celebration of anything, so there are two exuberant spirits working on the meaningful pause over here. :)

About the painting: artgraf drawing mixed with gesso and smudged for the base layer.  Acrylic paint and paint mixed with gesso for subsequent layers, liberally spritzed and scraped until under layers poke through.  Dry brushing for soft, smokey edges and finger painting for details.