- Published on
Even Dragons Have Their Endings
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Even Dragons Have Their Endings
oil on Yupo
11 x 14 inches
This item is unmounted and unframed
(click on the image to purchase)
So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.
J.R.R. Tolkien
Last week's post on loss garnered a lot of wonderful reflection from readers and followers. People letting go, people embracing empty spaces, people valuing connection and depth and eschewing non-reciprocal relationships and situations. And for the most part, we all agreed that seeing our way past loss on a larger scale (the chaotic present world) was perhaps an unravelable tangle.
So when this piece appeared on the easel, and the Tolkien quote decided to become attached to it, I was struck by the concept of endings and finality, of moving past what our hearts desire an into a calm curiosity about what's next?
To use Tolkien's words as a launch pad, perhaps we are in the fire now, globally and also (some of us) personally. It's hot, it's uncomfortable and dragons live a long, long time. It is hard to think of snow when we're sitting in the fire. But the snow will come, the dragons will have their endings and a new era will unfold.
To use Tolkien's words as a launch pad, perhaps we are in the fire now, globally and also (some of us) personally. It's hot, it's uncomfortable and dragons live a long, long time. It is hard to think of snow when we're sitting in the fire. But the snow will come, the dragons will have their endings and a new era will unfold.
That doesn't change the need to react to fire and dragons now, no no no! We must! And we do. But it does mean we can also begin to allow our curiosity about what comes afterward to blossom and grow. To make a space for something else, even if that something may take a long time in coming.
About the art: this piece emerged from a call-and-response moment in the studio - this color calls me, that color responds; this movement feels right, that movement feels next; this tool wants to be used, and that tool raises its hand and yells "me next!" Maybe it is a response to all of the wildfires here in the PNW now, my heart sitting out there with the trees and creatures and willing them to safety. The unpainted edges of white Yupo feel like cooling snow, which is coming, along with the rains. Soon, so soon.
The August Reader Giveaway continues! Not one but TWO lucky readers and commenters will receive a small landscape painting free! To enter, subscribe and leave a comment on any post during the month of August. The winners will be announced right here on September 1. And thanks to everyone who reads, comments and shares this site - it warms my heart. xo
- Published on
Renunciation
LISTEN to the blog by clicking the DOWNLOAD link above
Renunciation
oil on canvas panel
20 x 24 inches
This item is unframed
(click on the image to purchase)
The road to human development is paved with renunciation. Throughout our life we grow by giving up. We give up some of our deepest attachments to others. We give up certain cherished parts of ourselves. We must confront, in the dreams we dream, as well as in our intimate relationships, all that we never will have and never will be. Passionate investment leaves us vulnerable to loss. And sometimes, no matter how clever we are, we must lose… It is only through our losses that we become fully developed human beings. - JUDITH VIORST
I've been contemplating loss.
Loss in the wider world (human rights, decency, compassion, freedom), how those losses impact my small world, and also the losses associated with living a life.
Some attachments are willingly forgone - it was nothing to embrace a vegetarian lifestyle many years ago, for example. A joy, even, which continues today. Some attachments are severed, rather than given up - when people leave or physical abilities vanish in the blink of an eye (or at the blunt end of an accident). And some attachments erode slowly over time, until one day you wake up and realize they are gone, whatever (or whoever) they were.
In my best moments of loss-wrangling, I have embraced the empty space, allowing it to be just that - empty - knowing it creates room for opportunity.
Loss in the wider world (human rights, decency, compassion, freedom), how those losses impact my small world, and also the losses associated with living a life.
Some attachments are willingly forgone - it was nothing to embrace a vegetarian lifestyle many years ago, for example. A joy, even, which continues today. Some attachments are severed, rather than given up - when people leave or physical abilities vanish in the blink of an eye (or at the blunt end of an accident). And some attachments erode slowly over time, until one day you wake up and realize they are gone, whatever (or whoever) they were.
In my best moments of loss-wrangling, I have embraced the empty space, allowing it to be just that - empty - knowing it creates room for opportunity.
And in my worst moments of navigating loss I have held on with clenched fists, breathless and bracing myself, resisting the inevitable. It never goes well.
When I look back on all of the embraced empty spaces and what they have become, I am dazzled, gobsmacked and bowled over by the joy, the fortune, the pure magic of what came to fill those spaces. And if I focus on that, the next renunciation is easier, more graceful and more peaceful.
I am unsure how this works with the wider world and those losses, but I am contemplating it, allowing space for something, anything to make those losses feel like openings.
When I look back on all of the embraced empty spaces and what they have become, I am dazzled, gobsmacked and bowled over by the joy, the fortune, the pure magic of what came to fill those spaces. And if I focus on that, the next renunciation is easier, more graceful and more peaceful.
I am unsure how this works with the wider world and those losses, but I am contemplating it, allowing space for something, anything to make those losses feel like openings.
A little animation sing-along for your Monday!
About the art: beginning with a gesso'd canvas panel, I roughed in the figure with a long brush laden with thinned dark oil paint. Just a light wash to get the gist of it down. Then a base layer for the background, refining the figure proportions from the outside in, and a long drying time. As has become my habit, I then tackled the face, shoulders and hand to remove any trepidation, allowing them to dry thoroughly while working on the dress and hair. This piece has the requisite 80 million layers to achieve the color saturation and shading. More layers for the skintones, more layers for the background, more layers for the dress and then a final layer for that blush foreground. Oooooh la la! She is a powerful one!
Congratulations to Bryan E! Wonder Mike drew your name as winner of the July Reader Giveaway! Send your mailing address to thewanderingsoflola@gmail.com and your prize will be in the mail lickety-split!
The August Reader Giveaway begins today! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to be automatically entered. Wonder Mike will be drawing two names and giving away two small pieces this month! Now that's something to get excited about! :)
The August Reader Giveaway begins today! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to be automatically entered. Wonder Mike will be drawing two names and giving away two small pieces this month! Now that's something to get excited about! :)
August Reader Giveaway One
August Reader Giveaway Two
- Published on
Our Wild Ride Into Modernity
LISTEN to the blog by clicking the DOWNLOAD link above
Our Wild Ride Into Modernity
oil on canvas panel
20 x 24 x .1 inches
This item is unframed
(click on the image to purchase)
But I want to extol not the sweetness nor the placidity of the dog, but the wilderness out of which he cannot step entirely, and from which we benefit. For wilderness is our first home too, and in our wild ride into modernity with all its concerns and problems we need also all the good attachments to that origin that we can keep or restore. Dog is one of the messengers of that rich and still magical first world. The dog would remind us of the pleasures of the body with its graceful physicality, and the acuity and rapture of the senses, and the beauty of forest and ocean and rain and our own breath. There is not a dog that romps and runs but we learn from him. - Mary Oliver, Dog
It is becoming more and more difficult to resist the allure of the wilderness.
Of forest, of ocean, of mountain, of river, of meadow and desert and butte.
Which is an interesting conundrum as my aging self requires more and more modernity to be comfortable in its own skin, and to function well. Let's just take a bike ride, for example. Helmet, padded gloves, special shoes, ankle wrap, knee supports, KT tape for my right foot. And yet...I don all my accoutrements and set out like a ten-year-old every morning I can, gleeful and playful and powering up and over bridges and down again.
Of forest, of ocean, of mountain, of river, of meadow and desert and butte.
Which is an interesting conundrum as my aging self requires more and more modernity to be comfortable in its own skin, and to function well. Let's just take a bike ride, for example. Helmet, padded gloves, special shoes, ankle wrap, knee supports, KT tape for my right foot. And yet...I don all my accoutrements and set out like a ten-year-old every morning I can, gleeful and playful and powering up and over bridges and down again.
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!
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!
A little animation (with music!) of Medb, who was inspired by a Bluesky human with an inner warrior of feisty and fierce proportions. I want to be like her when I grow up. :)
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?
Just one more week until the winner of the July Reader Giveaway is announced! This month's prize is this oil painting on driftwood brought home from the Olympic Peninsula.
To enter, leave a comment on any blog post this month (or more than one! Each comment counts as an additional entry). A winner will be chosen at random and announced righ here in the blog on August 4th. Ready? Set? WIN!
- Published on
Pippi's Got A Gun
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Pippi's Got A Gun
oil on canvas
10 x 30 x .75 inches
This item is unframed but ready to hang.
(click on the image to purchase)
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
- AEROSMITH
Pippi Longstocking has become my poster child for dissent.
Something about her straight-shootin' (pun intended) manner, her refusal to be put down by established ways of doing things and her feisty attitude toward rules and bureaucratic nonsense has her firmly in my pocket of protest.
And it is a good time for women to have strong role models. Women who tell it like it is. Women who say NO. Women who give you that look (you know the one) when the bullshit-o-meter has gone up to ten (or eleven, if you're a fan of Spinal Tap).
The appearance of a gun in this piece surprises me, because I am not a fan of guns in general. It gives Pippi power, maybe. The ability to make folks listen. (I've been listening to her in the studio for weeks, and she has quite a lot to say! ) Perhaps the gun symbolizes the power of voice, of action and of intent. A way of communicaing that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY.
About the art: For this one, I began with a primed canvas and roughed in the figure and shadows with thinned neutral colored oil paint. Once satisfied with the shapes, I painted the background in thick layers of light neutrals. adding a darker version of the background to the shadows in many thin layers. Then it was all about the figure - many layers with tiny brushes (to get the details right) and resisting RESISTING the urge to perfect. Letting the eyes fill in what isn't specified.
Finally, a layer of varnish over everything once the painting had dried fully. She is powerful company in the studio, let me tell you!
Finally, a layer of varnish over everything once the painting had dried fully. She is powerful company in the studio, let me tell you!
A little more animation fun! This time with music!
The July Reader Giveaway continues! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to be automatically entered to win a free piece of original art. The winner will be announced right here in the blog on August 4th. And thanks so much for your participation!
- Published on
Hakken
LISTEN to the blog by clicking the DOWNLOAD link above
Hakken
(Japanese Werewolf)
pen and ink on wood panel
8 x 12 x .75 inches
This item is unframed but ready to hang
(click on the image to purchase)
Man is to man either a god or a wolf -Desiderius Erasmus
I keep returning to werewolves.
Maybe because they are openly very human. By which I mean they are savage and they know it, and also good and they know it. Sometimes they are overcome by the moon and do savage things. But mainly they are just everyday folks like you and like me.
I mean, a werewolf wants to fall in love, to build a life, to raise a family or have an illustrious career (or both), to find peace in the world and to find fulfillment as a being. She just gets tripped up by the moon sometimes.
On my on-going journey of embracing self-compassion as a lifestyle, I look my own inner werewolf in the eye daily. At first I could not. I could not look at that part of me directly - had to slyly skirt around the side if you know what I mean? But now I can (usually) look at her with an open mind and an open heart, understand what her triggers (full moons) are and why they are there. And accept her as a worthy being regardless.
On my on-going journey of embracing self-compassion as a lifestyle, I look my own inner werewolf in the eye daily. At first I could not. I could not look at that part of me directly - had to slyly skirt around the side if you know what I mean? But now I can (usually) look at her with an open mind and an open heart, understand what her triggers (full moons) are and why they are there. And accept her as a worthy being regardless.
It isn't always easy, of course.
It is, however, always messy.
Werewolves just aren't that neat, and we don't expect them to be.
It is, however, always messy.
Werewolves just aren't that neat, and we don't expect them to be.
About the art: last week reader Carol mentioned the written description of the art process for these pen and inks on wood panel wasn't exactly clear (my words, not hers, but that's the gist of it) and I agree! Thank you, Carol, for pointing it out.
So here is a video - soup to nuts, how to do it, and a little animation bonus at the end!
If you have trouble with this imbedded video loading, here is a link to it on Youtube.
So here is a video - soup to nuts, how to do it, and a little animation bonus at the end!
If you have trouble with this imbedded video loading, here is a link to it on Youtube.
The July Reader Giveaway continues! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to be automatically entered to win a piece of original art - free!
And thanks for reading, subscribing and sharing this blog. You, dear readers, make this little space sparkle! xo
And thanks for reading, subscribing and sharing this blog. You, dear readers, make this little space sparkle! xo
- Published on
Not A Monster
LISTEN to the blog by clicking the DOWNLOAD link above
Not a Monster
pen and ink on wood panel
8 x 12 x .76 inches
This item is unframed but ready to hang
(click on the image to purchase)
Scooby Doo taught us that the real monsters were always human - UNKNOWN
Last week was monstrous.
Many of us are walking around in a bit of shock, under a layer of grief and with our heads in our hands. And we must and should give a bit of time to those feelings.
The shock of the wide world implications of everything going on landed hard with me because of shipping.
Shipping? Yep, shipping.
Last month's Reader Giveaway winner is located in Israel. So Wonder Mike and I wrapped her prize with care, measured and weighed it and went online to get a shipping label. But no planes (NO PLANES!) are flying to Israel now. Wait, what?
It is a small thing, not the end of the world (the package will wait patiently until planes fly there again) but it kind of jarred me into awakeness. The state of things is trickling down to the every day, and systems unraveling, the day-to-day less certain.
Shipping? Yep, shipping.
Last month's Reader Giveaway winner is located in Israel. So Wonder Mike and I wrapped her prize with care, measured and weighed it and went online to get a shipping label. But no planes (NO PLANES!) are flying to Israel now. Wait, what?
It is a small thing, not the end of the world (the package will wait patiently until planes fly there again) but it kind of jarred me into awakeness. The state of things is trickling down to the every day, and systems unraveling, the day-to-day less certain.
Which sent a flood of awareness coursing over me - all the people whose benefits, jobs, housing, education, food, utilities, medical care and citizenship are at stake now. First a trickle, then the flood.
But we see you, human monsters. We see you and we vote. We protest, we write letters and send emails and make phone calls. We see you.
But we see you, human monsters. We see you and we vote. We protest, we write letters and send emails and make phone calls. We see you.
About the art: Wonder Mike posed for this one! The brave little guy had no hesitation about landing in the embrace of this jovial monster. Beginning with a varnished piece of wood panel, I added black gesso around the sketch of the figure to ground him to the background. Working from the faces and hands outward, patiently adding each line with a Rotring Tikky Graphic Art pen number 3, filling in with a number 8. A few white highlights (the dog's face and the monster's teeth) with a Posca paint pen. Then a coat of varnish over the entire piece to set the ink and protect it from fading.
The July Reader Giveaway begins! This month's giveaway piece is an oil painting on driftwood from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. It is ready to hang, varnished, hanging hardware on the back. approximately 5 x 18 inches.
To enter, leave a comment on any blog post during the month of July. The winner will be announced on August 4th right here in the blog.
Ready? Set? GO!
To enter, leave a comment on any blog post during the month of July. The winner will be announced on August 4th right here in the blog.
Ready? Set? GO!
- Published on
The World Invites Me
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The World Invites Me
A diptych
24 x 19 inches
This item is unmounted and unframed
(click on the image to purchase)
So seldom in these grief-ridden days
do I feel aa feeling as pure
as this peace that arrives
on the low-angled light
when I am quiet and still
and the world invites me
to show up for whatever
slim warmth there is,
and know this is enough.
FROM "APRICITY"
by ROSEMERRY WAHTOLA TROMMER
These are, indeed, grief-ridden days.
Trommer's words hit home, especially now, when it is so important to show up for whatever slim warmth there is, to crawl out from under the monster-banishing covers, poke our heads up from our dark, safe holes and view the goodness and beauty that still exists in the world.
And there are plenty of those things, if we're brave enough to look. I'll list a few of the things I showed up for this week:
Trommer's words hit home, especially now, when it is so important to show up for whatever slim warmth there is, to crawl out from under the monster-banishing covers, poke our heads up from our dark, safe holes and view the goodness and beauty that still exists in the world.
And there are plenty of those things, if we're brave enough to look. I'll list a few of the things I showed up for this week:
- slowly coaxing our crow couple's fledgling, Isolde ("Izzy") to allow us closer to her when she stops by to visit and enjoy snacks
- riding bikes along the waterfront and feeling the long winter of training on a Wahoo Roller in the garage beginning to pay off in strength and stamina
- putting Wonder Mike through his new training regime of tricks, proving an old dog CAN learn something new
And this - diving into the poetry of Rosemerry Trommer. I was introduced to her by the amazing Dotty Seiter in her blog, and felt the connection immediately upon reading one of her poems.
To my delight, Dotty sent me a tiny art masterpiece she created - a bookmark to match one of the books. And even MORE surprising is that I had a bookmark Dotty sent me in 2022 which matched the other Trommer book perfectly. Little works of art, the beauty of well-crafted words, the joy of connection and friendship in grief-ridden days. Yes, please.
To my delight, Dotty sent me a tiny art masterpiece she created - a bookmark to match one of the books. And even MORE surprising is that I had a bookmark Dotty sent me in 2022 which matched the other Trommer book perfectly. Little works of art, the beauty of well-crafted words, the joy of connection and friendship in grief-ridden days. Yes, please.
Original art bookmarks from artist Dotty Seiter
About the art: a mad fury of paint-laden palette knives and Yupo, big gestures and small, creating the landscape even as I wandered through it. Unrelenting paint, colors melding, smashing, carving and cresting, letting the chaos both exist and get wrangled simultaneously. Walking away before getting precious with it.
Congratulations to Carol E! Wonder Mike chose your name at random from this month's commenters. Hooray! Send your mailing address to thewanderingsoflola@gmail.com and your original art will be flying across the world in a jiffy.
Thank you to everyone who participated this month! A new giveaway begins one week from today.
Thank you to everyone who participated this month! A new giveaway begins one week from today.
- Published on
Do The Thing
LISTEN to the blog by clicking the DOWNLOAD link above
Do The Thing
pen and ink on Yupo
8 x 10 inches
This item is unmounted and unframed
(click on the image to purchase)
It’s impossible to be a life-changing presence to some without being a total joke to others. Criticism is proportional to impact.
People will criticize you for your successes. They will criticize you for your failures. They will criticize you for acting. They will criticize you for not acting.
F*ck the haters. Do the thing. - MARK MANSON
It has been brought to my attention that a number of you creatives are feeling stymied by the situation in the world. That perhaps your inner critic and naysayer, that finger-wagging shame-ball lobber is telling you not to create. The inner voice is being a hater, sending you down the toboggan chute of procrastination and inaction.
Well, I have a message (and a permission slip) for YOU!
(If you have trouble with the video, here is the link to it on YouTube)
Well, I have a message (and a permission slip) for YOU!
(If you have trouble with the video, here is the link to it on YouTube)
Here's a little something to fire up your creativity!
The AI bot recently launched the ability to take your art and animate it. Whoa! So the first piece into the animation incubator was Frank-on-skates. I think the bot did a great job of bringing him to life.
Can you see me rubbing my hands together with glee? Oh oh OH! The possibilities!
About the art: I like to work pen and ink drawings into the mix while layers on oil paintings are drying. This keeps my hands busy so I don't succumb to the temptation to fuss with the oil paint while it is still damp - it's a real problem, I tell ya! So this week I wanted to create a piece inspired by attending the NO KINGS protest here in Portland, along with the general sense of frustration and anxiety going on all around. I'd really like to have this woman's outfit and boots.
- Published on
Marvin Makes Messes
LISTEN to the blog by clicking the DOWNLOAD link above
Marvin Makes Messes
pen and ink on wood panel
8 x 12 x .75 inches
This item is unframed but ready to hang.
(click on the image to purchase)
Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived...Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation... Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here. - Anne Lamott
I am learning to be messy.
Messy should be the first instinct of humanity. Get your hands sticky, get your feet muddy, get your hair tangled, get chocolate on your face. Now smile. :)
As a child, the only thing I was praised for was my tidy room. Because the one thing I was that my siblings were not was tidy. They embraced the mess, celebrated it, perfected the art of messiness. I cleaned my room.
I now understand tidiness was my way of trying to control something in a situation that was out of control altogether.
Messy should be the first instinct of humanity. Get your hands sticky, get your feet muddy, get your hair tangled, get chocolate on your face. Now smile. :)
As a child, the only thing I was praised for was my tidy room. Because the one thing I was that my siblings were not was tidy. They embraced the mess, celebrated it, perfected the art of messiness. I cleaned my room.
I now understand tidiness was my way of trying to control something in a situation that was out of control altogether.
Even now, when I am anxious or stressed, I start cleaning. In the studio that means organizing supplies, putting gesso on substrates, rearranging things. What it does NOT mean is painting or writing. Lamott's point is solid - messes are the artist's true friend. It is a sure sign for me that I am deep in a good exploration if the studio is a mess. Who cares? There is paint to be flung with reckless abandon!
Where are you on the mess spectrum? Are you a morning bedmaker? Do you have a floordrobe? Is there paint on your hands? Briars in your hair? Ice cream on your face? Leave a comment below! As a bonus, you'll be entered in the June Reader Giveaway!
The current state of my paints
About the art: I can't seem to stay away from monsters. This is a larger iteration of a guy I recently made and kind of adore. He's enthusiastic about EVERYTHING! Beginning with an unprimed cradled wood panel, I applied a sparse layer of white gesso (keeping the background a bit like a white-washed picket fence). I used black gesso to create the vertical backdrop for Marvin, masking off the areas for balloon and figure. The rest was a joyful meditation of pen and ink (Rotring Tikky Graphic Artist Pens work well on gesso'd wood) and then a black Posca pen for the ground beneath Marvin.
- Published on
The Next One Might
LISTEN to the blog by clicking the DOWNLOAD link above
The Next One Might
oil on art board
14 x 18 inches.
This item is unframed
(click on the image to purchase)
“All artists live in the gap between what they imagine and what they produce; no finished painting ever looks as good as the one I see in my mind, but the next one might.” - BRIAN RUTENBERG
I've been listening to a lot of Brian Rutenberg's Studio Visits on YouTube.
Ok, ok, yes I have listened to them all before. But I am a slow turtle when it comes to absorbing some information, and listening repeatedly helps knock it into my skull. Well, sometimes. :)
Rutenberg doesn't consider himself an abstract painter, but a southern landscape artist. Yet he doesn't paint trees, but treeness. Oh!
The "abstracts" I paint are generally not abstract paintings - but are instead abstracted landscapes or abstractscapes. I suppose you could call them gorgeness or forestness or beachness. The essence of something, without the actual thing.
Ok, ok, yes I have listened to them all before. But I am a slow turtle when it comes to absorbing some information, and listening repeatedly helps knock it into my skull. Well, sometimes. :)
Rutenberg doesn't consider himself an abstract painter, but a southern landscape artist. Yet he doesn't paint trees, but treeness. Oh!
The "abstracts" I paint are generally not abstract paintings - but are instead abstracted landscapes or abstractscapes. I suppose you could call them gorgeness or forestness or beachness. The essence of something, without the actual thing.
But back to the quote at the beginning of this post - I absolutely live in the gap. What I imagine and what I paint are two different things. But I am relentlessly determined to have my skills catch up to my dreamscapes. Probably they never will. But there is always the next one. Which is a lot like hiking. What's over the next hill? Around the bend? Across the stream? Always curious about what's coming next. Always willing to go and look.
About the art: beginning with a piece of art board (donated by my artist husband while he organized his studio space) I roughed in a mottled sky using a palette knife and thinned oil paint. Using the side of the palette knife and some dark paint, I roughed in a landscape in a V shape with a couple of hills. Working quickly and abandoning preciousness, I build layers of paint until there was some texture to it. Grabbing a piece of butcher paper, I pressed it into the paint to lift some of the layers, then pressed the paint-laden paper in other sections, creating a rocky ground look. Carving back into the paint with a rubber wedge and creating some "treeness", then adding color to those verticals with the palette knife. Inspired by hikes in the waterfall section of the Columbia River Gorge.
The June Reader Giveaway continues! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to be automatically entered to win a piece of original art - FREE! And thanks for your comments and your support!
