Paint Party Friday Girl

My girl this week was painted in acrylic.  I felt the need for strong colour, and that is something acrylics do very well.  I still not comfortable with them, but I am getting there, I miss the buttery feel of oils.  I used oils 2 days last week and my Psoriasis flared up big time.  So no oil painting till it settles down again.  (I know gloves!  But in this hot weather I ask you!)  Ah, I suppose we can’t have everything in life.  A friend suggested that if I do a lot of the under painting in acrylic, and then the top layers in oil might be a compromise.  I was going to do that with this painting but had so far and decided she was finished. 

Looking at her I think she is ready for the party and her date’s not turned up or she is disappointed with it?  Anyway I think she looks a bit sad.  I know, she has just realized that she can’t have everything she desires.

Have a happy PPF everyone and a very creative week, I know I will.

Linking with Paint Party Friday

Word Art Wedneday

My entry for Word Art Wednesday is

God’s LOVE is amazing!

It is:

Unconditional

Limitless

Never tiring

Forever

He will never abandon you

EVER!

Blessings Everyone.

Janus

January is a month of reflection; we look back at the past year and look forward to the coming year.  Janus was a God that looked both ways.  The thing we have to remember is that while we acknowledge the past, we are to focus more on what is to come.

 
This journal page is a gouache painting of a small glass statue I bought years ago.  It actually only has one face, but I decided to give it two faces.  I wanted them identical, so I folded the page in the middle and traced the outline

Its Hot

The prompt at Artist's Playroom this week is weather.  Here is NZ we are in the hottest month of the year.  The sun has dried up the grass so it is brown, the sky is blue and the glare hurts your eyes.  But I love it! Except at night, when you flop down on your bed, bone tired and its too muggy and too hot to sleep, you put the fan on and the noise of it drives you crazy.

I used gouache in this beach scene. Yeah, I know I live inland, but I dream of being able to lie in the surf and have the waves lap over me! I think my neighbour was doing that last week, his dog was barking like crazy and I went to the fence to tell him to pack it in, and before my eyes was an scene that will be difficult to forget without a fit of the giggles.  My neighbour is a very proper gentleman, so you can imagine my amusement and his embarrassment at being discovered lying fully stretched out in a child's plastic padding pool playing with his grand children's toy boats!  The poor guy now hurries inside whenever he sees me!

This piece is postcard size as I want to practice doing small, as I want to take part in the postcard swap at Artists in Blogland this month.  This card I will send to my friend in Britain just to taunt her as she is freezing at the moment! (Its payback as when they had their summer she taunted me!)  I got to say I find small difficult, but think it will be good for me as it will help me to simplify my images, because sometimes I think I get a bit too busy!

(Sorry, all you Northern hemisphere bloggers, but I had to read your blogs about sun and holidays in my miserable cold wet winter last year. Hehehe)

The Dark - part 1

The theme for January at Creative Everyday is Dark. Last October I did a sketch of my cat Bro up the macrocarpa tree down the back of my garden. This is the original sketch.

At the time I thought I would like to write a story around it. The theme Dark provides the perfect opportunity. I have used coloured pencils, and if the story pans out, I will redo the pictures in acrylics.

I will post the next installment next Monday. Have a creative week everyone.

Linking to Creative Everyday.

Monoprints

Friday has come and I haven't done any sketching.  Oops!  One of my goals out the window,  ah ha, I thought all is not lost,  monoprints!  I was tidying up my oil painting gear,  I have a very small space where I do my art work so have to be relatively tidy.  Which is alien to my normal character.  So I got my roller out and spread the paint over my glass sheet which I use as a palette.  I had been using blues a lot this week so was able to mix and not get mud!  The above is the first go.  I drew into the paint on the glass with the end of a paint brush and a the edge of some card, and used rice paper to take the print.

Next, I spread out the paint again, and laid some cartridge paper over the glass and drew a face in pencil, then lifted the paper of and voila.  I think it looks like a stone statue!  The darker bits are where I used my fingers to press the paper onto the glass in the hope of creating shadow.

I looked at the glass and there was still a smear of paint there so spread it out this time with a cloth.  Then used some rice paper again as it is very sensitive.  Then on the back with a ballpoint pen drew this lovely.  I had to press quite hard to pick up the paint, I lifted the paper up to have a peep.  I think she looks quite Edwardian, Watching too much  Downton Abbey!  (Is that how you spell it.)

So my sketching done for this week and my palette cleaned – waste not want not! 

The scripture I am taking with me into the coming week is:

  Never let go of loyalty and faithfulness.

 Tie them around your neck;

 write them on your heart.

 Pro 3:3 GNB

Have a lovely week creating my fellow dream makers.

 Linking with Sunday Sketches

Welcome Home

I am crazy about my cats. This week I was beside myself when my Lucy disappeared for a couple of days. If it had been one of my other cats, Bro or Xana, I would not have been so upset. You see Lucy is a real home body, you literally have to throw her outside, she loves to sit in the window and gaze out at the world. What made it worse was the fact that it was the first anniversary of her sister Jandal's death. Jandal disappeared for a week and when I found her she so was so ill, I had to make the terrible decision to put her to sleep.

So you can imagine it, I was thinking “here we go again!” I was paralyzed. I prayed and had to force myself sit at the computer on Tuesday and do some work. When I had finished typing my blog post, I heard the most welcome sound ever, her plaintive meow demanding food! Joy of joys, she was healthy as, and slightly confused at my emotion, but, being a cat, she lapped it up! Thank you God. So to give thanks, I painted this acrylic of her at my window. Welcome home Lucy. (I wonder if she was having her own celebration of Jandal's life, she pined for ages when Jandal died.)

To Jandal who didn't make it home safely. She was called Jandal as on one foot she had a black toe on white feet. Looked like she was wearing Jandals, (other countries call them Thongs, I think). Here she is with her mother Xana (right) and her sister Lucy (left).

Linking with Artists in Blogland - Show and Tell Saturday

Resolute

Yay, I have actually finished an abandoned oil painting this week. True to my goal of being focused this year, I fished out this painting and completed it. Sometimes, time does give you the answer! I really loved the shadowy figures but the girl I had originally was wrong, she had too much detail and she didn't fit the canvas. (The canvas is 12 x 24 an unusual dimension, I had brought it originally because I wanted to do a frieze.)

I used white paint and painted her out. Then this girl found herself on the canvas. I think the contrast of the sketchy girl with the background create a tension that works. I have painted this girl several times over the years. Her name is Julie and she is a strong determined person. Going her way despite what others say. I would love to have some of that myself, I am too self concious sometimes, I worry about what others think, and sometimes miss out on opportunities. So I am going to take a leaf out of Julie's book.

This week I have also worked out a plan for me to stay focused. I've joined the Creative Every Day Challenge, as I realised I need the “kick in the butt” approach. I am a procrastinator by nature, and work best when I have deadlines. At the same time I have a contrary streak. So I have decided to work with these traits. I know I am incapable to sticking to a work timetable, I need to go where the muse takes me. During a day I might write, paint, draw illustrate whatever, so having set days for these activities would not work. So, I decided to try and have set days for posting on the different activities. This is what I have planned!

Monday – illustration and writing this month I am going with the theme from CED – dark. A story about my cat Bro.

Tuesday/Wednesdays – Journal work

Thursday – Word Art

Friday – Painting

Saturday – Anything goes

Sunday – From my sketchbook

Wish me luck on this, as I said I can be quite contrary.

Have a great Paint Party Friday everyone and blessings to you all.

Linking with

Paint Party Friday

Creative Every Day