Follow your bliss...: Vacation...part 2

Friday, June 17, 2011

Vacation...part 2

Elemental, abstraction 6/16/2011, acrylic wash, monotype, rice paper on canvas, 24 x 8 inches

I'm back on vacation again, a few days off, a few days at work...it's a little hectic at the office. (I don't really want to talk about it.)

Yesterday I painted all day outside, my little porch studio was a contemplative space, the first painting fell into place quickly (in stages of course), but it was inspired by a small acrylic monotype sketch in my sketchbook from two years ago, I've been meaning to put it on canvas, but sometimes these things need to be worked out in their own time.

detail

The second piece...oh, fun!

This was done on a whim...

I painted over the 2006 Calendar from one of the Chinese restaurants that we frequent that was hanging on our kitchen door (for a little too long), but I didn't throw it out...the idea wheels turned. I tried painting over it, but it just wasn't right, so I adhered some rice paper to it, and then it got some body to it. I've been layering color on it for a few weeks, it wasn't doin' it for me...well, you know how that goes, so I went into "that mode", you know the one, the state of frustration that very often can make or break a piece..."oh, fuck it" I said, and went at it...the blue circle was preceded by a white one that disappeared rather than being something ethereal and lovely, so I slathered on the blue, stepped back and said "There ya go!" I am painting the back, but it's not finished.

detail

A work in progress. 24 x 24 inches

This last piece is a work in progress, oh it's so pretty, I'm enjoying my yellow-on-yellow phase, tho' I wound up adding a touch of green to this one to give it a little more contrast...I'll finish it soon, I'm almost there.


Detail

There are more in progress, surfaces prepared, washes laid down, and such...I'm juggling painting and writing, and working in the garden...I've been dodging raindrops today to keep up with the weeds, at least the asparagus bed looks better than it did! I'll post more as they come into being. I have a show to get ready for next Friday at Moonlighting, and a show coming up in July at the Szozda Gallery (can't wait!) So I must work hard to get these pieces ready to hang!

1 comment:

Seth said...: What wonderful artwork. The details are fantastic. Looks like vacation agrees with you!; 5:36 PM

Me and Fibromyalgia...the good news is, it's not going to kill me.

I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2007 after years of being told my illness was all in my head. My Fibro is everyday fatigue with body aches, mostly tolerable, but when I have a flare-up, which can be triggered by stress, hormones, or being over tired from over-doing it, I get the full body pain, including chest pains (yes, these are scary, like an elephant standing on my chest.) Thankfully, it doesn't hurt to take a breath, but I feel breathless, I just do yoga and breathing exercises to stretch and breathe to ease through the worst of it, NSAIDs help to cut the pain, and naps are always a necessary thing when needed (but hard to do while at the day job!) It's a balancing act to manage, I take advantage of the good days, lay low on the bad ones, and very often, push through in spite of the bad days...some mornings I wish I could stay in bed, but I'm glad that I get up and about, very often 'the kinks' work themselves out. I refuse to take the recommended pharmaceutical band-aids on the market, I tried one once, and I don't like feeling like a zombie. I keep active with my creativity, I think that's the key to my overcoming this obstacle every day...and I have my Fred and our son, five cats, and one dog named Max.