Lilies in the Park

Almost repeated the miracle of finishing a painting in a day! And honestly, I could force the issue and finish it now but I haven't decided what color the background should be and I don't want to do something I'll regret tomorrow.

 

I had planned on leaving it white but I started painting it at a park while my kids played and I was constantly distracted looking up to check on them and being bumped when my littlest finagled her way onto my lap and so I ended up with some splatters from my water cup. And once that same tiny girl accidentally grabbed a wet edge and smeared it so white is out. What to do instead...?

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...

2nd chance WIP

So I had this partially-begun painting hanging on my line of unhappyily unfinished paintings and fairly demanded to be finished. In it's defense, it didn't really seem fair to make it keep waiting while I started something new so I brought it back out for a second go. And I like what happened tonight. It feels kinda soft and dreamy. And instead of stressing as I sometimes do about how to keep my "style" intact while still giving the impression of the reality that inspired the painting, I zoned out singing to Les Mis, reminding myself that "my painting, my rules."

And I even cleaned my art room this weekend!!! Maybe that's why it was easier to relax while painting tonight...

Rule follower by nature

I think I might've had a breakthrough. I brought this painting to a critique group on Friday and one of the ladies said that since I wasn't painting realistically, I didn't have to follow the rules. Since I was creating my own version of reality or my own playful universe, I got to make the rules. See I was struggling with the ocean. Trying to keep it on the same level of that middle ground but if land - the same in lack of detail or sharp edges, the same in intensity of color. But it made the water, which is like a whole third of the painting, into a total blah zone. 

So I deepened the colors and sharpened the lines. And then I played with the sky, trying to tie the circles of the leaves together with the repeated, parallel lines of the ocean rolling in. Sure they weren't really there. But what does that matter when I'm making the rules? I think I'm going to like this game. Now the question is, is it done?

Peaches and Cream

This color rose just makes me think of peaches and cream for some reason. Yummmm. Now I'm hungry. But that aside, I'm finally painting again! I got a pretty exciting phone call this week. I was chosen by the mayor of Grand Forks, North Dakota to be their next Mayor's Choice artist. Here's a link to the program. I'm super excited! And I have about a month to get as many paintings done as I can. So here goes. I finished this old one tonight that I had started years ago. Thought it was about time I got around to it. What do you think? Is it done? I'm not sure yet, so it's taped to the wall for me to scrutinize for the next few days.