Vikings Progress and I Hate Change

• I have always maintained that I thrive on change, but I now realize, I hate change.  The new blogger changes have me befuddled.  I suppose this old dinosaur will eventually evolve.  But, Boy is it hard sometimes.   So here is the progress on the viking painting as of today.  I am getting the background finalized and the grass and rock foreground is starting to take shape.  The monk's face is really kicking my butt.  I thought it would be easy, but for some reason, I just can't get it going, and I am using my husband as a basis, but not an exact portrait.  Maybe I need some more distance from it for a bit.  But, I will say, I am fond of the viking.  He looks mean and nasty and unclean. 



Life Gets In The Way

Sitting here today at the keyboard and I've got nothing.  Been too long since the last posting, so here's a recap.  I turned 60, YIKES!!!!  I have learned to make an awesome latte and espresso.  Still working on the Vikings and Mercury paintings.  Really thought they would be finished by now, but had a funeral in a distant town to attend, got caught up in visiting galleries, picking up art and dropping off more art.  Oh, and now I have lost 15 lbs. 

Painting White

For years and years I struggled to paint a convincing white object. Most turned out flat and awful shades of grey and white or blue and white. This photo illustrates clearly how far I have come in my education on painting white. The white pot is my basic grey and white object with some touches of yellow and blue. It's ok, but look at the white Iris and the crochet tablecloth. There are variations of lavender, pink, blue, teal, yellow and even a spot of orange and green in the white of that Iris.

The table cloth has purple to lavender shades, yellow and blue and grey shades in it also. I finally found my own method of interpreting white in this painting and have filed it away in my brain under color memory storage files. This painting is now for sale at the Hermitage Design and Gallery in McLean Virginia.

Much Better Composition

Here it is. The Zorro cloud formation is gone. This is much better......the background is a background and does not compete with the characters in the foreground. The sky is dramatic and lends an ominous tone to the whole image.

Sculpting Adventure

I have always wanted to try my hand at sculpture. I don't have much in the way of sculpting materials and so I wacked on these two Alberta Spruces in front of my home this weekend. Ta Dah!!! Not too shabby for my first ever attempt at topiary. Now I am searching the yard for more shrubs to fall victim to my clippers. Both of the spruces were originally 7 feet tall.

From Good to Better

For every bad day, there is a really good day waiting. Yesterday was it. I am especially fond of rabbits, having been born on Easter Sunday many eons ago. Yesterday, I painted this Jackrabbit getting a head start on Mercury and also a box turtle looking up at him. I will work on these two little guys again, they aren't finished, but are pretty satisfying starts. Oh, and all this after my adventure in topiary clipping. I will post pictures of that later.

I have already prepared my palette for today, squeezed out lots of colors, laid out my brushes, put on the pot of coffee. I am promised by my husband, that there will be no interuptions today.

From Bad to Worse

Remember the two little dark clouds problem? Well, now it is one big cloud problem. Did the fix, left the room and then returned to find that Zorro had been at work on my painting. Oh Shoot, I will fix it tomorrow. Today I am pruning shrubs and then painting a Jack Rabbit on the Mercury painting.