Thursday, February 12, 2009


This mural is becoming more of a challenge than others I have done. Right now I'm working with bigger negative space than before. I'm also challenged with getting the paint spread evenly.

There was a comment that she looked too famished with her ribs showing..I'm not worried because I will be painting over the body again. I like to feel the structure before worrying about that.

I was getting an overdose of purple and orange so started to add some blue violets to the back ground..changed my mind on the bottom a couple times, so I am where I need to sit back for awhile and THINK about this. Her hair needs to be much darker, and I need to start putting in other elements as plants, bird, rabbit. My daughter stated that she did NOT like this painting because it looked sacrilegious which bothered me so I'm hoping that adding the animals, etc, it'll come across as more about the nature aspect of it. This was never to be a religious painting.
So now everyone knows how I go about it. Like moving furniture...

May not be able post for awhile as I have to watch my granddaughter for a week and also I am on stand-by as my father is in the hospital and I may need to fly down to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. So if there are no posts...you know why.

Monday, February 9, 2009


With Ron being in Minnesota today I was able to paint non-stop other than stopping to shop for some paint. I always get blown away by the prices of some colors. $30.00 for one SMALL tube of paint. Amazing considering I have a whole wall sized canvas to paint on!!!

Received word today that the MRI showed a fracture and torn ligament, but when I see the doctor on the 19th in Chicago I'll get the low down. So I guess this means no scuba diving!!! I guess I'll be the co-pilot on the boat and hand everyone their towels as then ascend from that beautiful blue water. The reconstructive surgery will be AFTER the trip.

I will post every day I paint...but really you can't tell much difference..but I'll post it anyway. The hair has to change... I need to start focusing on the earth and the other elements I want to put in now. You know...every painting takes on it's own life, regardless of my vision...you know what the painting reminds me at this point??? A southwestern, south of the border tattoo or car decal. What about you? I plan to change that as I go along!!!!

Friday, February 6, 2009


Well, I painted a little more but need to hit the sack as I have to get up early and drive to St. Louis.
Give it time...it'll come around....I hope! It's a lot of canvas to cover.
It's not really that crooked...it's the way I took the picture..

Women and Strength


I started a new piece yesterday. It's 6 feet by 3'6". Don't panic..it won't look like this. I feel my way through things...so what I do is darken all the slight curves and then I'll go in and soften and do away with a lot of that. My model was in a bathing suit...but I am going to have her hair flowing across her to cover her essential parts. The picture should look quite a bit different than this..I call this roughing in. I like getting darker than I should and then lightening things up.

The idea is that women gain their strength from the earth..The elements...her feet will have roots coming from her toes..her feet being planted in the ground...I'm playing with the idea of greenery growing from the ground and maybe I'm not sure growing up one leg...or maybe a rabbit leaning up looking at her which would give a feeling of the gentleness.
I'm not sure how large I want that sun or moon to be...I like keeping my options open. The picture will be way much darker at the bottom, getting lighter towards the sun or moon...whichever I decide. It's a large canvas I hung on the wall...It takes a lot of paint and time to cover the areas.

Just listening to Simon and Garfunkle and chilling out in the studio and painting.

We had 2feet of snow the other day and believe it or not we're suppose to be up to 40 degrees today which means we'll probably have some flooding!#$^&*(

Hope you have a good week-end.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009



I think I need to learn how to place these pictures on my posts so I have more control over where they are other than left, middle, right.

I think I can not call myself an artist. I mess around too much constantly searching for something?!#$^&*()

Anyway, I'm posting my reference on the duck, and tried working on it more..however I'm still struggling. Yes, someone needs to just steels the thing and hide from me. It's hard to admit defeat!'

Also I had some extra blue paint on my palette so just used that to block out the background on "Joy"...just to see if I liked it better. I do...but need to lose some of that blue now, and I'll have to think about the background..maybe scumble some paint in the back, and I feel like those silly bricks are still popping through too much.

But, I AM TRYING!!!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

JOY

I have the overwhelming urge to paint out that background. I like painting people, but I don't like everything else like backgrounds. I like Klimts work because he focused on people and mood or atmosphere of emotion, and he also played with just design. For me his work was like combining portrait work with design and color..the design was done differently than the portraits. Unless someone posts something ...I think I am going to put Makenzie on a floating board and paint out the background. I'd like this piece to look more contemporary than just cutsie which I don't want...and I don't like the existing background anyway!
Quotes I love...........




I dream a lot. I do more painting when I'm not painting. It's in the subconscious.
~ Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)

Whether I'm painting or not, I have this overwhelming interest in humanity. Even if I'm not working, I'm still analyzing people.
~ Alice Neel (1900-1984)

Quotes found at ArtQuotes.com

Monday, February 2, 2009


I hope everyone enjoyed the Super Bowl...not being a football enthusiast I must say it was exciting to see Arizona lose respectfully since everyone thought it was going to be a blowout. I only watched the last quarter since I was working on trying to finish some paintings that were needing my attention. Between painting and running down to check out all the latest commercials I gave my foot a real workout!
I haven't been able to paint as much as I'd like to this week as I went to the Univ. of Chicago to see a specialist about my feet. 25 years ago I had bunion surgery by a doctor from hell. Doc said I was in bad shape and surgery using a bone from a cadaver (or mine which I said no thank you) might give me some hope. Nine months rehabilitation as all the bones in my feet have moved and lost functioning and muscles have shifted...so as you see I have been consumed...also the fall I had after this New Years seems to have given me torn muscle or something , and am having an MRI this week. One thing is if I have to be laid up in bed I can still draw which I suspect I'll be dong a lot of! Just say I prayer that it's not what the doc thinks on the sprain because we had planned to go on a dive trip to the Little Caymens with our son who just got certified. I love diving and it will be hard if I have to just sit on the boat...surgery will be after the trip.

I have a disease of not letting things go. Got sucked into trying to make that duck work. I am a fighter in that "I JUST KNOW I CAN MAKE IT WORK' ...and "I WILL FIND A WAY TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE A DUCK"...I think the reference I am using is not helping me at all either.

I started trying to finish "JOY" of my granddaughter. Remember the background when I originally did it was not a focus of mine and I just threw in color...then it was brought to my attention that it actually was a focus in the painting...The flowers are actually Phlox..They consist of a grouping of tiny flowers formed in a round shape. I am not a flower person even though I love flowers. I have sold a couple but just not my forte'. So I painted out the other blobs and started new blobs...and yes, I know I need to keep refining them, but I have to be careful because I don't want the flowers to pop...I don't want the back ground to be too busy. I want the focus and brighter colors on her only... I am bothered a bit by the blue bricks..what do you think? maybe I should get lighter and grayer?? Just don't want them to be a focus...I wanted the back ground to be grayish so the warm colors in her popped...comments!!! I'm looking at it now and think that line of the bricks needs to be staighter even though the photo looks like that!? I'm looking at this photo and thinking "maybe I should make this more contemporary and paint out the back ground or darken it so you can barley see the background and have her suspended on just a board floating...as if her joy is what sustains her and put the splashes of color back in!!! I am thinking I could be very tempted with that idea..

I did clear a wall and got out my 73" x 6 yards roll of canvas and plan to cut a very large piece and hang it on the wall and start on the painting that's been in my head. I'll just treat this like I'm working on a mural. It'll be interesting to see where this goes as everytime I see the picture in my head it always comes out with it's own personality.