Sketching

Fiddling around with colored pencils. Not my best work, but I'm really stuck on the image.

Class project

I'm going blog crazy this week, huh?

My son's class is doing a geography project involving butterflies. They made butterflies out of tissue paper, hung them up around the classroom, and then left for spring break. When they came back *gasp* the butterflies had flown away. The idea was to have friends and family send postcards from around the country and the world telling the kids where their butterflies had been spotted.

My son has been bugging me to write a postcard to his class. He's totally on to the game, and wants me to participate. So I did, and here it is:

Silent Reverie

The aforementioned sketch:

Caelum

Toying with names for the painting when I should be going to bed. I have no idea whether it's finished. I had originally intended ONE of these to be an acrylic rendering of an old pencil sketch I'd entitled Silent Reverie. However, I like them both so much, I'm afraid to mess with them.

Aaaaand another...

This one's a bit of a teaser, as I've only included the corner of the canvas. Actually, i guess it's just a little less than half of the canvas. I started this painting and left the last as it is because I liked the latter so much, and was afraid to mess it up. I am now falling in love with this one was well. *Sigh*. One of them will have to serve as fodder for a more complex painting. Dunno which it will be yet. Maybe both.

Back at painting...

My work for today. I started this one last night, late, and finished this morning.


After I finished the one above, I sat for about 45 minutes *trying* to paint, and nothing happened. Well, three or four cruddy paintings happened, one on top of another on a single canvas. I finally set that aside and started fresh on a smaller, square canvas, and this is what I came up with. It's about 5 x 5 inches, so the face was quite a challenge.

Black & White

The Door

13 June 2008, 3:55 PM

I’ve unlocked
a great many doors from the past
when need required such. yet now,
let’s leave this rusty lock alone,
let such things rest while rest can be had
and enjoy the footpath winding round
about sycamore groves and swaying
grasslands, through starry nights, under sun
burning in cerulean skies. The door
will still be standing if ever we return
to this shadow-darkened bend in the road.

Who’s to say we will?

If we don’t, that door can remain
locked and undisturbed until the very end,
and I can bury this key beneath the Waters
in the shifting bed of failing memories.


Inspired by the Weekend Wordsmith.

Painting with My Parents

My parents came to visit last weekend, and we took them to a pottery painting place in town. We'd started painting tiles a few months ago with the kids which we are using to tile our kitchen, and we thought it would be fun to have visitors participate. I had no idea what artists my parents are. Below are the tiles we all painted while they were here. Sorry for the glare. I tried to photograph them without a flash, but the colors just weren't right.



Left to right-
Top row: Mom's, mine, Epona's
Bottom row: Dad's, Beloved's, The Boy's

Opportunities

The more I paint and sculpt, the less I write, and vice versa. I note, however, that of late I haven't done much of either. I have, however, been pursuing venues for displaying my artwork, and not without success. Next week I'll have some paintings up in a coffee shop in Wilmore, and I may also soon have some paintings hanging in Euros, a new wine bar in Nicholasville. I'm very excited about the possibilities that are arising.

Another Sculpture

I'm getting better at this, and I'm enjoying every moment. I cannot WAIT to get my hands on soapstone. Or ceramic clay. Or ... whatever.

Seeing Red

New project- painting in primary colors. I painted this image like a black and white, only I substituted red for black and yellow for white. I'm really happy with it.

Sometime soon, when I have more paints, I'll do a blue & yellow and a red & blue. I have some other combinations in mind as well, but thought I'd get through the primaries first.

Sculpting

My first attempt at sculpting a face. The medium is Sculpey Clay.

Windy Day- finis

I think I might be done painting now for a while. At any rate, I'm plum out of images right at the moment. I'm very happy with this one. There are still a couple of things to be done- the yellow paint is very transparent, and needs several coats to cover the sketch beneath it. Other than that, though, it's finished.

Windy Day

This one started in my mind years ago as a poem (senryu, I believe):

The tide is turning.
I stand on the cusp of life
awaiting rebirth.


I hadn't connected the two (the poem and the painting) until I sat down to paint this morning, but they definitely go together. The painting is not yet finished. I blocked in the color last night so our daughter would be able to see it before she leaves us for the next week. She was impressed.

The Fields

THE FIELDS
7 January 2008, 12:17 PM

O, Beloved- you've told me of your Africa,
and I've longed to see Kericho, and the lovely
green fields of tea- the flavor embodied
in the top two leaves and the buds of Kenyan chai.
I could almost see the kinsmen of your heart
walking through the fields, singing beautiful songs,
laughing and flashing bright colors in the wind and rain.

How many died in the fields today?

So strange to grieve so deeply for a place and a people
I have never seen except through your eyes. But I do,
Beloved. I mourn the ebony of midnight skies,
the white diamonds scattered within, the red
of an African sunset, and the blood
seeping into the emerald fields.

Sycamore- FINAL ANSWER

Finis.

Sycamore

Have worked on this painting since last I posted it. In some ways, I'm happier with it now than I was before. In some ways, I think it needs more work. Not entirely happy with the shading.

Sycamore

Have worked on this painting since last I posted it. In some ways, I'm happier with it now than I was before. In some ways, I think it needs more work. Not entirely happy with the shading.

New site...

For those of you who read my poetry, here is a new site named beautyofashes.com which my Beloved is currently constructing for my artwork. I'm kind of excited about it, though I have no way of getting word out except through this blog, and I have no idea how many readers I have. Nonetheless, the opportunity for my work to be seen by more than just family and close friends is very exciting. My poetry was well received when I first began posting three or four years ago. I hope those same people will enjoy the visuals which go along with the poetry.