Evolution

I finished working on my waterfall painting and I got to comparing my other waterfall paintings. Wow, what a progression. I thought I’d share them with you.

This one was my very first painting. I was working from a Bob Ross tutorial and had one happy accident too many and ended up with a completely different painting than I was supposed to have.

This next painting is one you’ve all seen probabl, but I’ll show it again because the progression is important. This painting was one I did last year before I came fully into my own style. I had just taken Jerry Yarnell’s class and knew my art was evolving, but I hadn’t yet uncovered the path where my art was going.

Okay, now finally the last one. Just completed.

If you want to see how this painting developed as well as closeup shots, please click the link to the left that will take you to my Facebook – WIP album page. While you’re there, why not sign up to be a fan of the page and stay current on new paintings. But don’t delay, these photos won’t stay long on Facebook as I’ve got other paintings to showcase. The show must go on.

New Piece Mentioned Yesterday

Since I blabbered on yesterday about my newest work in process, I figured I better actually post a picture of it. I did better than that though. I posted two pictures. Just for you! Yes, you. I figured if I mentioned it I better reward my loyal readers.

It feels kind of strange having so many works in progress at once. Looking at the album, one would see that I have four paintings I’m working on. Truthfully, the first painting shown is nearly complete. I still feel that it needs something. The other two canvas works I haven’t committed to yet. There’s still the one I’m not certain it will work, but I do want to give it a chance. It’s just this waterfall piece has overtaken me. I don’t mind putting one aside for another temporarily. If it lasts too long and I don’t get back to a painting, I know that I just need to paint the canvas over and start again. I use to do the same thing when I was writing. If one manuscript started calling to me to work on it, I would put the one I was working on aside to work on the other. I certainly hope other artists work this way otherwise I’d feel insane.

Well, get on over to check them out. The Work In Progress album on Facebook is one that will always be changing as new pieces are started and others are finished. You’ll be one of the lucky ones to be able to say that you stayed with the updates along the way.

Pain and envy

Yes, I envy the artist that can paint and write a blog post every day, or nearly every day. I swore I would try harder, but somehow the universe is fighting against me. If 2009 continues to go like it has so far, I vote that it be tanked and we move onto 2010. On the other hand, I am a true believer in balance so maybe I’m just getting all this negativity out of the way so that I can have some good fortune enter my life.

Long story short, I was in a car accident a couple weeks ago. My boys and I were on the Interstate going home after watching a movie. The roads were icy and I was in the slow lane. I didn’t even see it coming. One of the trucks trying to go around me hit their breaks and it forced the car behind him to hit his and he slid right into me. Poor guy. Anyway, as a result, my car’s in the shop now. My boys are okay, but I took the impact through the steering wheel. For a week now my wrists have been bothering me. It’s hard to type when they really start hurting (that’s why there were no new posts since whenever the last one was – I had set that one up to go right before the accident).

We’re all on our way to recovery. January’s always a bad month for me anyway, but really! I long for the day when I can stay home throughout the month of January and avoid it all. Ha! Like that will ever happen. Anyway, my youngest son also broke his glasses last week. Less than a week before that, we’d put lenses into his year-old frames.

On the bright side, I have been painting when my wrists and muscles haven’t been aching too badly. I knew that I’d do everyone much better if I spent the time resting, so I really tried to do that. However, it’s hard to not paint too. I have a new one that I started yesterday. It’s central focus is a waterfall. This one is done on paper as a study for a larger one that I’d like to do on canvas. I have this canvas that’s 4′x2′ that I’ve been looking for just the right thing and this waterfall might just be it. Anyway, I hope to have work in progress photos up on Facebook in the very near future along with all the others. I’ve rearranged my living room a little so I hope I can get better WIP photos than I was getting. I won’t know until I download from my camera though.

This new painting has been a challenge though. I really like the paper for airbrushing as you can tell from my past work. I want to get back to airbrushing soon – I haven’t been doing a whole lot recently since once the temperature drops I just want to hang out near my heaters. Besides, there’s something about getting out of bed in the morning and opening my blinds to the early morning light that inspires my airbrushing. Anyway, enough there. Back to the new painting. The paper doesn’t hang onto the paint as well as canvas and when it does get onto it, the paint dries very rapidly. There’s no time for blending. Although I do find it easier to keep out the hard lines since I really have to scrub the paint onto the paper. In some ways that has been easier to layer colors. I want to experiement with my next piece a little more, maybe make it a bit more of a traditional landscape in order to really play with the paint and colors.

I love the way the waterfalls are turning out so far. I’m tempted to mask them off so I don’t accidentally get paint all over them, but I remind myself that it is only paint. I’m also afraid the masking would end up peeling the paint from the paper. If it wasn’t going so well so far, I’d be tempted to experiment.

When this one is done, I plan on matting it and maybe framing it. I’ve set up a new system that allows me to paint on the larger paper that I like, but that will matte easily with a 11×14 size and fit into a 16×20 frame. I think this will be a good selling point at the fairs this year. Yes, fairs again. I’m thinking about applying for one in Salem, Oregon and another in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The booth fees might be a bit beyond my reach this year though. I hope not. Besides, I still have to make it past the jury and be accepted. I’m trying not to put the cart before the horse.

Speaking of the cart before the horse, if I want to do fairs this year, I got to get some inventory. Last year’s fairs sold out all my good paintings. Now, I’m left with pieces I’ve either decided not to sell or with items that really need to be painted over or burned. Especially now that my painting style has changed so drastically. Or, once I get back to airbrushing, I may find that my tree paintings haven’t changed all that much but rather just improved. I’m every so hopeful, aren’t I?!!

Anyway, now that I’m starting to feel all better and not as sore, I’m ready to get back to it. No more pain and envy, just nose to the grindstone.