Murals

I have been working on my friend Tammy's playroom for her kids, it has been a long project, but I am enjoying it.  It is fun to try and put it all together, and painting isn't so bad either ;) there are 2 more buildings to go, I have started the fire station and I still have the pet store and school house to go.  It's funny, I always think it is going to take way less time and then I look down and 6 hours have passed and I feel like i've barely made a dent.  I guess that is when you know you like what you are doing.

There is a cute fire engine too, but I somehow deleted the photo when I was trying to email it to myself :) aaaah, technology.

Not my day

Insignificant 3'x4' Mixed Media on Canvas

 

I spent some time in the studio last night and today and let me tell you, sometimes the universe is just against you.  I was putting together some panels for some new work and in the process of nailing the panels together I kept splitting the wood and on the second hammer to the thumb, I called it a night.  Today did not shape up much better, I messed up another panel (hammers are not my friend) and broke my hand sander :( so I quit with the panels and worked on a piece I started a couple weeks ago.  I think the frustration really worked for me, the figure looks crushed, much the way I was feeling.  Sometimes everything going wrong is exactly right.

A little retooling...

Poppy  24"x24" Acrylic on Panel

So, this piece I did while still in school, but it just never was right.  So, I revisited it one more time, it has been hanging in my kitchen and I look at it every day and I think I am finally happy with it.  I added a few highlights to make it pop and a few dark spots for dimension.  Nothing like staring at something you aren't happy with for nine months to make you want to fix it :)

Finished

Another day of cold temps in the St.G, but I braved the freezing cold rain and darkness to finish the collage.  I'm pretty happy with the final piece.  I haven't cropped it yet in real life, cause I'm not sure how much space I wanna leave above the figure.  I'm torn on a title as well, before I was going with Shattered, but now I'm leaning toward something more about feeling boxed in, I don't know, maybe inspiration will strike and the perfect title will come to me.

Numb...

Shattered

So, it's 40 degrees here in St. George and what am I doing? I'm out in my studio/garage in christmas pjs, flip flops and a beanie working on a new collage :)  I'm sure if anyone were watching I look like I've lost my mind.  I only lasted about an hour and a half then I couldn't feel my toes any longer.  I also finished two other paintings, i'm feeling very accomplished and numb.

Painting/Sketch

Just trying something new.  I covered an ugly, old painting and then sketched with watersoluable graphite.  Pretty fun, the texture ate my graphite pretty quick, but I was happy with the final piece.

Fun Again

So I finally spent some time in the studio, good news is I have quite a few paintings going at once so maybe I won't get stuck on just one (now I'll get stuck on multiple paintings at once :)) This one has been my favorite one to work on.  It is different from my usual stuff and i'm liking that.  So I've had this canvas 3'x4' just sitting around the studio for MONTHS, I hadn't used it because I gessoed it in the summer and the heat made it dry so fast it had huge cracks in it. I had to find some way to use it and incorporate the cracked gesso, so i added tons of texture to it, I should take a close up so you can see it, but anyway, it has been fun to play in different media and see if I can make it work.  I'm working on a bunch of paintings for a friend, but I have no idea what her tastes are in paintings.  I guess I'll find out soon enough :)