Flaubert has rejoined me and is so adorable. Gustave of course will be coming.
I love the patterns in this painting.
Stay tuned as I will be posting about my Cuttyhunk Journey this weekend.
Flaubert is a 7″ by 5″ Ink and Watercolor on Aqua Board and is for sale for $225 framed in a shadow box frame.
Filed under New Work
Can you tell that there are 2 cats scratching creatures. A twist on the usual cat getting scratched by their owner. Our cats love petting. In fact Arthur is now wearing a pheromone collar to remind him of his mom. Amazing all the things a vet might recommend. It is supposed to help Arthur feel more secure. Time will tell.
I am gallery sitting at the Art Stable Gallery Westport today. Stop in and see new work by several of the ASG artists. I have added several new paintings and will be working on a new one while I am there.
This painting is 7″ by 5″ Ink and Watercolor on Aqua Board. It is varnished and framed in a shadow box frame.
When it comes to imaginary creatures I seem to have no lack of new ones that pop into my head and make it to the paper. I wanted to paint a wild creature who just by looking at her you knew she could tame snakes. Well I think I accomplished that. Possibly even could scare them away.
The flower on the upper right comes from a drawing I made of flowers on a sugar bowl that was on our outdoor table at the Hotel Opera where we spent our last night in Munich. When we went out to dinner we decided to eat nearby and found some lovely outdoor restaurants. Only 2 cars went by during the 2 plus hours we sat and dined…and one of them was a cab. Heaven!
It was wonderful to be in a city where public transportation and clean air is so valued.
This is a 7″ by 5″ Ink and Watercolor framed in a black frame and ready to hang. Bitsy tells me that this one still needs to be at the special Cart(Cat+ art) price of $150 so I am not arguing with her. I already have sympathy knee pain and found out from the orthopedist that I need a new knee. OY! I am hoping to put it off a bit as I have lots on my agenda for the next few months.
And I am going on an Artists Retreat to Cuttyhunk Island in September! Wonderful! This was a very special gift and I will share more next post.
This was quite the challenge to work out as I wanted to stay with purples, oranges and browns.
Was able to put a nice wash of gold on the background.
Which creature would you like to be ? Any reasons why?
Please consider signing up for my blog and I will randomly choose a winner of a gicleé of one of my works matted to 8 1/2 by 11.
Learned today that I can significantly lighten Higgins waterproof permanent drawing ink from aqua board if I use soap and hot water.
I am interested to see how the painting will look with much lighter outlines.
Would love to have you follow my painting journey and be sure to let me know which creature you would like to be.
This is a 8″ by 10″ Ink and watercolor on aqua board, varnished and framed in a shadow box frame.
To purchase click here:
Sometimes I want there to be lots of interaction going on with my creatures but in this painting I decided to let the creatures speak for themselves.
Although my work looks “childlike” to most eyes, I spend a long time on composition and work out color values on paper copies before I watercolor my painting. I often do my work on aquaboard and varnish the finished work rather than use watercolor paper. I can go through 10 to 20 revisions of my drawing before I ever get to the inking stage. Once I do ink in my paintings, I am using the old fashioned technique working with a crow quill pen dipped in indelible ink. More on my process and intent in the next post.
Today I hope you enjoy the tamed wildness of sea anemones intersecting with jungle creatures and giant sized poppies.
SOLD
I love painting dramatic imaginary foliage and poppies so here they are combined with a family of creatures.
This painting is getting framed in a beautiful maple floater frame. This is the style of framing I did for 8 paintings I mailed to Europe today. (Ask me about the complexities of that task!).
This is on top of being woken up at 3:31AM by my cat Arthur who jumped on my head 5 times, swatted his tale on my face and cried repeatedly. I thought maybe he saw an animal as the light was pouring in from the full moon, or we hadn’t left the basement door open but when I got up to investigate, just sat at the head of the bed crying. My phone is right nearby and I had the sound turned down to one notch. At 3:39 my 86 year old mom called me from the hospital. She had been taken there by ambulance after falling.
Sometimes I know things are just coincidences but I have been reading the book Making Rounds With Oscar that my dear friend and amazing artist, Kelley MacDonald lent me. This is the story of Oscar the cat at Rhode Island’s Steer House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center who goes and curls up next to patients destined to die within hours in spite of what doctors state or predict.
I am not saying Arthur is an Oscar, and my mom is already home, with a small fracture in her neck and a few bruises but thankfully nothing more. He is a smart and intuitive cat who came into my life when I most needed to have a kitten to help me refocus my energies on joy and playfulness. And he woke me up in time to see my phone light up and be there to talk to my mom when she really needed someone to help her talk to the ER staff.
Arthur is in orange, Bitsy the calico.
And if you know of anyone who might like to sign up for my blog, I am giving away an IPhone 5 cover with one of my wild leopard paintings on it to one of the next 5 people who sign up for my blog. So, please pass this along if you think someone might be interested.
This painting is 9″ by 12″ on aqua board, varnished, framed and going to go to a new home.
OK, I hope you smile. This is my way of making someone happy. Art gives me joy and joy is happiness.
I have spent several days working on this picture. It took quite awhile to work out the patterns and colors. Swirls and spirals always intrigue me and I like to see them in my paintings. The bunny is offering flowers to the elephant and my cats are hanging out in the tree. I often add a Mother Goddess to my work. She takes care of overseeing each little world. This time she is communing with the flowers oblivious to the curious cats and the animals paying homage to the wonderful elephant. This continues to fit in my jungle series although the creatures are tamer. I do love the color combinations and the sky full of poppies.
Here is a close up of this curious constellation. And we did not get to see the Aurora Borealis here due to cloud cover. My former office mate lives in Fairbanks, Alaska and I would love to see what the sky is like there. I also hope to go back to Iceland to see the Northern Lights (which we did not see when we were there both times we went).
If anyone out in the world of painting is working on aqua board, I would love to hear how you are framing them. I have searched the internet, watched videos on framing them and haven’t quite come up with a good solution. I am going to try a suggestion by Kelley MacDonald and see how it works. I will have to get more creative on the best way to frame a flat varnished board in which the painting goes right up to the edges.
This is a 9″ by 12″ Ink and Watercolor on aqua board. It is varnished and framed in a black and maple shadow box frame. This painting looks really lovely and is for sale for $600.00.
When I drew this, I began putting my usual suspects into the painting rather than some of my more recent jungle creatures. Painting the background on aqua board is challenging. I find I need to work with all the strokes going in one direction. I must be sure the paint stays wet enough so the background stays even. On this painting I worked in the background first. I decided what colors I wanted to work in and painted out a few color combinations on xeroxes of the outlined drawing. Once satisfied, I began to work on this 8″ by 10″ painting.
Mr. Gray Pants and Purple Polka Dots remind me of cartoon characters.
This painting is framed in a maple and black shadow box frame. To purchase click here.
I have been working on a few pieces, taking time out from each to let them sit before I continue to work on them. I haven’t finished any recently as I have been moving in between them but thought I would post part of a 9″ by 12″ work on aqua board.
Thanks to all who signed up for my blog. I have a winner from the last 20 blog followers. It is a lovely woman who bought my photo through Etsy. Well that is a nice surprise.
I love seeing the April daffodils and the early white forsythia blooming in our yard.
Happy Monday to all.
I am working on a new piece with some of my imaginary creatures. I have figured out the color scheme and am doing something I haven’t done before. I am painting the background in first. This is the most tedious part of painting on aqua board as the strokes all need to be in one direction and with the same consistency of color. I look forward to posting the finished piece later in the week.
Happy Thursday to all. Yesterday it was breezy all day and then last night the north wind blew for hours. I hope everyone stayed warm. We lit a fire which kept the house very cozy.
