Dragon of Windy Bend

The past few days I have been at first making small changes and then I made a few more until I really added more drama to all my paintings going up tomaorrow at LaSelles Stewart Center on the Oregon State University Campus in Corvallis, Oregon.

Grouping Paintings for the walls of Giustina Gallery

Checking measurements of paintings and the gallery. I wonder how it will all sort out.

How about smaller groupings as though several paintings are one work? Tomorrow I am going to just have to start some new work unrelated to this show.

Fish Habitat

The blue jays may have lost their nest of many seasons when the pine tree fell but the roots would make shelter for juvenile fish. Here I continued my 12" square block series of the fallen fir tree. The masonite block was sized with layers of gray tinted gesso. And after beginning to paint with watercolors I set the colors with gloss medium or painted spots with "Golden" canvas colored absorbent ground. The ground made the masonite board take paint as though it were paper. These mixed media applications satisfied my need to show the freshness of spring.

Success Is Not Good Enough - "If It Ain't Broke, Break It."

A detail of "Dragon Song"
The texture after two layers of glossey gooe

"Dragon Song" was a good painting but after reading Martha Marshall's post - http://artistsjournal.blogspot.com "If It Ain't Broke, Break It" I was inspired to try something that could wreck it. I wanted a candied apple dripping gloss to make "Dragon Song" a delicious red painting. Well, needless to say the Liquitex acrylic gloss varnish applied with a brush thinly did not make a smooth glassy finish. It accentuated the irregularities in texture. So I put on another coat. Still the same tortured reflective ripples. Then I poured the medium thick and gooey. It looked like a big flat lake as smooth as can be until it started drying. I sprayed to help smooth it and started making star bursts of hundreds of little tiny comets. It developed erosion canyons.

Taking in the new developments at first unwanted developments, I had to make a decision on whether or not to junk the painting. Or make it into something different. With the intention of destroying what I had done I started to do what Martha Marshal does with some of hers. I started drawing in the gooey thick acrylic medium with a screwdriver. Then I saw the possibilities of molding the new idea to what was underneath. I drew musical notes and carved around the edges of the dragon. The texture and the form work together. The little comets suggest movement of the musical notes. I like the glass effect and have enhanced it with some sprinkled glitter.

My imagination is alive with new ways of using acrylic paint that I would never have dreamt of without breaking what was a good painting.

Kiribati Abstract

This 4' x 2' acrylic painting on canvas is the most recent metamorphose of an abstract started in December, 2004 - a month before we actually traveled to Christmas Island, Kiribati, the largest ocean in the world. Christmas Island is near the equator south of Hawaii and three thousand miles from the capitol of this most widely spread island nation. This nation is at risk to loose all fish, birds and their islands are so low that they may loose their land to the ocean.

Fledgling

The blue bird house is quiet. But I saw one this morning when the moon was still high. The fledgling no doubt took a dip in the ditch and was shaking the water off before it flew off.

Three Feeding Four Blue Bird Chicks

It is good to back to acrylic painting on a 1 5/8" deep 7" x 5" masonite box for sale $100. Today I painted outdoors looking towards our blue bird house where three adults are feeding four chicks. In the distance I hear the builders working on the new house on our old pasture. They play energetic songs in Spanish as though it were still Cinco de Mayo. Soon the builder will cut one of the lower limbs of the climbing tree and he is giving it to us for wood.

New Beginnings

I am happy that the surgery is behind me and that I am recovering. My husband also had a lot to endure waiting for my surgery that lasted nine hours. And then he has been nursing me the past two days. I came home 26 hours after the surgery. I am doing really well and will soon be posting paintings from our adventures in the motor home. Only it will take maybe six weeks before I can lift any weight more than 6 pounds. Thanks for all your well wishes and support.

Nesting in a Painter's Motor Coach

When I am recuperated from surgery, my husband and I will go traveling in our Winnebago Coach. RVing is new to us and we are busy customizing our new home. I am preparing a soft sided cooler on wheels for my art supplies. Everyday will bring a chance to paint either inside in my passenger seat studio or outdoors. Managing my painting with as little impact on the environment, I may paint with acrylics on acrylic that I pour and dry. I do not want to use wood stretcher bars and discard cardboard and shrink wrap. Shrinking plastic is not good for the environment. The challenge will be the presentation. Wouldn't it be a kick to recycle throw away trash into something attractive and meaningful.

Thank you Martha Marshall for your comment. Yes low tech pencils and watercolors are good for traveling. I am open and appreciate suggestions on being an artist on wheels.