Monday, June 13, 2016

"Life finds a way"

I was dying to get painting today. Of course it didn't actually happen until this evening but I kept thinking about doing it! It's just that I first helped my oldest get going on a sewing project, did some laundry, read to the three littles so that they got good mom time before I tried to get them to play without me while I painted, got tiny down for her nap and then cleaned the kitchen because it was killing me. Unfortunately while doing so I watched this great video about needing to take care of yourself so you can be more creative. He was very persuasive. So I made lunch for us all with real food instead of throwing together an array of snacks like usual. And one thing lead to another lead to a softball game in the unseasonably cold weather, led to me not starting until late. Such is life. But I did paint in the end and I'm really pleased with how it's going. 
My landscapes usually take considerable more stress and planning and long pauses where I stare at them without doing a thing. This one is just flowing almost effortlessly. Feels so weird it's almost wrong. Is it the clay board surface instead of paper? Or the preliminary sketches I did, which I don't usually do? Or my new attitude about not having to follow "the rules?" I don't know. But I'll take it!

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Finally some time to paint!

As we were driving home from our recent camping trip we kept getting a quick view of this amazing rock. It just went straight up outta nowhere, like somebody had pulled it up out of the ground like taffy. It really was so cool. And as the sun filtered through the trees and the river ran through it all...love it. So inspiring. I could've sat there all day and watched how the gradually moving sun changed the shadows in the trees. But I had 5 kids in the car who were tired of mommy getting out to take pictures of pretty scenes, so I jumped back in of course and we drove off. But I've been thinking of painting it for days now and finally sat down this evening when we didn't have a softball game to be it in what feels like the first time in forever. So I took advantage of the free time. And my husband even made dinner so I could get to painting sooner, meaning I possibly won't even stay up too late!
It started out going very quickly, almost alarmingly so. I think having had the image in my head for days helped me plan all sorts of composition decisions ahead of time and I was just ready to get going. It's not on paper though, it's on Ampersand clayboard. I have never done a painting on it before. Totally new experience here. I can't do wet-into-wet like I usually do because the water doesn't spread and the paint just sits there. But the color is bright and it lifts off like magic whether you want it to or not. Ha. Can't wait to do more.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

And Painting-Needs-A-Name is done!

Finished!! And what's even better is that I'm truly happy with it! 
I added large ripple lines to help the reflection read as a reflection, which was a bit terrifying. Before I bit the bullet and did it, I put a piece of tracing paper on top and painting the blue ripples on the tracing paper. I've never tried that trick before but it totally worked! I knew instantly I had to do it. Took a lot of the fear (of ruining the painting) out of the equation, which is always nice. Especially because throughout this painting, I enjoyed a freeing sense, a lack of fear and restraint. Trying to figure out how to work that into the title...