DISNEY ON ICE

     A few weeks ago my husband and I visited with our grandkids. That is always a joy but to make it even better we all went to see a Disney On Ice show in Orlando. Needless to say Disney puts on a wonderful extravaganza for the eyes and ears to behold.

      Getting a clear still shot was hard because the skaters were in perpetual motion.  The most important shot was of my grandkids watching the magic of Disney and eating pop corn.

     Sometimes it is good to get away from painting. I find I go through streaks of finding subjects that I can't wait to paint and then I go into a creative malaise. My therapy is to step back, organize something, clean something, read some fun books and spend time with people.

     What I know that the spark will return so just relax and let it happen.

     Refilling my artist's well as I write.

AN ARTIST'S ANXIETY

Finished Product: Time for Tea

      Somehow I thought painting should always be an enjoyable stress free career. Wrong!

I have come to the conclusion that it is hard frustrating work. It took me forever to define my style which is colorist/expressionist and now to ply my craft.  I pour over the books and DVDs of Anne Obrien-Gonzales, Lisa Daria, Carol Marine and Clair Harrigan. It is starting to sink in but there are many moments of; OK now what do I do and if I get any more layers on this painting it should be sold by the pound to get top dollar.

#1

"Time for Tea" is not going well to say the least. Step one flowed nicely with the stencil tablecloth and stenciled background wall space. 

Then in step 2  I tried the dreaded flowers and I mess them up every time for so many reasons. Jazzed up the back "table" with red checked design. The red checks were distracting from the focal point so off with it's head. 

#2

#3

Getting creative I added a paisley print paper for the cup of tea, it helped but now the white vase is  just a big dominate blob. I painted it yellow, that helped but it was overwhelming the design so I added a whitish see through rice paper to tone it down a bit. The finished product is at the top of the page.

What did I learn:

* When a picture is not going well I get "artists anxiety". Before I figured out the cause I just thought I was a bit depressed. Note to myself; expect this feeling a lot in the future.

*Dead lines that run down to the wire stress me out a bit. I'm the type that has all in order with plenty of time to spare. Well, I just lost track of time and the dead line date. 

* Have faith in myself that if I don't give up I will figure out the solution of what is wrong with my wonky works of art.

* Never ever paint those big fat flower blobs. Notice how they changed into Trumpet Flowers.

MAIN STREET VERO BEACH GALLERY

Acrylic Skin Flowers

Guess what? I have a guest artist spot for the month of September at MSVB. I am going to jump in with both feet to show my colorist expressionist style. This is who I am as a painter and it feels true to my artistic soul.

Summer of '42

Contemplating

The exhibit was held on September 2nd thought October 5th at the Main Street Vero Beach Gallery on 14th Avenue.

The day before my sister in law helped me hang the exhibit and it took longer and was more work than I expected. The next evening was the monthly Gallery Stroll in Vero Beach, Fl. which is always a lively evening.

Many of my friends came by to wish me well and see my paintings all in one place. I had not seen all my new work in one place either. Someone noted that I like the color orange.

I'm the one in the blue flowered top.

One wall of the exhibit. It was tiring but a delightful evening and yes my feet did hurt by the end of the show:)

METAMORPHOSIS OF A MIXED MEDIA

I started out planning on a complementary red/green painting. These are only a few of the stages of evolution for Lilacs, it even ended up next to the trash can for a few days.

OK, try again. I have read that every painting goes through an ugly stage. From experience I know that to be true. This one almost did not survive.

Somehow the mixed media changed into a yellow, blue, green triad. In step two the black threw me off for a long time. My painting friends say I should throw the tube of black away.
This poor picture has had stripes of many different colors and sizes.

The flowers started out as stamped circles to look like lilac flowers but I over did the flowers  until it all looked like amateurish mud.

Step away from the painting for a few days.

Lace rice papers covered the horrible flowers with a variation in color and sizes. New printed paper had to be added to the front vase due to construction problems.

With the addition of just a little black we are calling this work of art
done. Be forewarned that I am going into a stenciling embellishment phase.

Not too bad for a trash bin candidate.