Digging back into the past to unbury treasure...

Here's an oldie, but a goodie...River of Fallen Stars. I'm always partial to posts that illustrate the process, I don't always stop long enough (or soon enough) while making a work of art to photograph the beginning to the end...

Sunday, March 02, 2008

The Progress of a River of Fallen Stars

I started this one back, back, back...ummmmmm...January, after the New Year, immediately following the second large Celestial Spring painting, soooo that was back on New Year's Eve...

1
Well, it all started with a wash of blue, and sprinkles of salt, I let it run and drip, then dry...




















2

I kept it taped to a board during all this time, so forgive the rough edges, it is a mess...but the next few steps were like this, I would work into it, drawing, splashing paint, shaving pastel and water-soluble graphite into damp soggy places, and more splashing, and occasionally loading up a brush with white acrylic paint and splooking it on there...fun, right?















3

Well, then I made more of a mess with it, and tried to make some defined linear stuff to lead the eye around...it didn't go where I initially planned for it to go, more white than I wanted it to be...I really wanted more blue...but sometimes you go with what you got and make it work...

but I really didn't like it that much at this point, there were parts to it that I enjoyed, and parts that I just didn't know what to do about...











4

Today I finished her off...finally...I'm mostly happy with it now, I had to fall in love with it all over again today...which wasn't easy, I was really having doubts about it, but I like it now...



















Detail of bottom








I really like the way I dropped it into the margin to make up for the blop that oozed under the tape...

The title is from a song by The Kennedy's a little folk duo, Pete and Maura Kennedy, River of Fallen Stars is one of my favorite albums...I believe it's out of print, but there are used ones out there to buy...


Detail of top...



It just makes me think of a meteor shower when I look at it...kinda sparkles...


Well, that's that...it seemed to turn out all right after all..









Later, in the summer of 2008, River of Fallen Stars sold at the Contemporary Gallery during the Whimsy exhibition, co-curated by Courtney Rile and Roslyn Esperon.

My faithful laptop has suffered with the "Blue Screen of Death" condition this week, so I've been a bit out of commission, tho' I am back at half the size with a new Dell Mini...it is mighty itty-bitty, but I'm loving it...as for the old laptop, I'm hoping to get it repaired and up and running again soon, and I'm hoping to retrieve as much information from the hard drive as possible because there are a few photo gems that I haven't backed up in recent weeks...so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't a lost cause...

A work in progress...

A work in progress on the porch, a nocturne in blue and purple...

Summer Night, a new painting...

It's still a work in progress, but almost done...there's still a little bit of something I want to do to it, a splash here, a splash there...maybe...I'll enjoy it as is for now...

I'm really loving the details...




If you look close there are browns and earthy colors in the layers below the green and Payne's gray, it was a painting that I started back in April and stalled out on it...and I left it hanging on the wall where it could nag me every day (FINISH ME!)

Here's the before:
It had a lot of cool possibilities going on in there, but it wasn't shining like it is now...