Missing my Friend!

This is the beginning of a tryptich mosaic tile wall art. Ran out of glue, so have to wait to do the other 2. Thought about Michelle while doing this, she is an awesome mosaic artist friend who just moved to Chicago. We miss her at the Stutz, and I'm sure they miss her in the Carmel Arts and Design district too!

Frolic

Continuing to build a body of work (no pun intended) of nudes in oil. I'm hoping to have more time to paint, now that I am no longer president of the Stutz Artists Association. That's right! As of last night's elections, I am free to paint, draw, even to work at my paying job (nursing)! Very excited about the future, especially since there are two shows coming up this fall that I hope to be a part of. Stay tuned for October's "Women of a Certain Age..." and in November, Spirit and Place, "The Body". Both of these will be exciting events!

Napping on a Cloud

Newest painting, started from our model two weeks ago. This is in oil, 20 x 24. It feels so good to paint!

Starting Something New

Today I moved my mosaic supplies back to my studio. Hope to begin some conrete garden stones, then move on to something more sculptural. The possibilities are endless! This new inspiration came from seeing the work of a handful of other artists. It is apparent that GOOD art is done in community. I am excited about beginning!

Painting is a Process!

Today I am posting 2 images. The one, "Coming and Going" you have seen from last week. I wasn't sure if it was finished, but I've made some adjustments, and I believe this is done. I notice that I have forgotten to sign it, though. Something I am frequently guilty of.

The other image is of a painting I'm not entirely satisfied with. I am happy with the compostition, a male nude in a contemplative pose. I am not happy with the colors, but need to let this percolate before tackling it again.

I am having fun painting again, though, and for that I am grateful!

Exposed

I've been exploring Expressionism. It's really kind of fun! One result is that I'm beginning to think that it's possible to "draw" with paint. This opens up a whole new world for me, because drawing is what I really enjoy and feel called to do. This painting and the previous one are about drawing with paint, and about drawing what I like, often, this is the human figure.

Hope you like it!

Coming and Going

After spending a couple of "dry" weeks, artistically, I decided to just DO something! I have always loved figures, but haven't attempted to paint them very often, thinking I need a model, and why pay for a model when the first paintings for a while won't be any good. So do you see how backward this thinking is? I decided to just do it, paint figures without worrying about making them realistic or even attractive to anyone but me. This is the start of my efforts. I began from a gestural drawing done in open figure last week. This isn't done, but not sure what more to do. It's large-ish, 34" square. It's oil with some charcoal. The charcoal is another piece which I decided to leave in, even enhance. Usually I just use charcoal to sketch the rough outlines, but I like charcoal, and I like line, so why not emphasize that? I kinda like it.