Happy Faces

It's been way too long between posts, but that's the kind of year it was. A year with joy and happiness with the birth of our first grandson in April. A time of stress and sadness seeing our second son's marriage end. Throw more stress in there with a broken ankle and psoriasis on my hands and feet which, after a year of agony, is finally getting better. Not the best environment for creativity!

There was a lot of success as far as sales go, which is always a boost to one's ego. The sunflower paintings started with one little plant in my garden and ended up with a total of 5 paintings, this one at 30" x 36" being the largest. It was fun to paint on canvas, which is relatively new to me, and to do a realistic subject. There will be a few more to come but I need to take a break and do something different. In retrospect, flowers always make me happy - my subconscious knew what I needed all along!

This summer I will be offering a workshop in collage - teaching being another new venture for me. Now to find my collage materials and get busy!!!!

Cloning

I've just finished varnishing this painting which is a semi-replica of a previous one. The first painting, 24" x 12", goes very nicely in my newly renovated guest bathroom so I decided to do another one in the same vein on a 24" x 18" canvas that I had.

It's not easy to do the same thing twice! There are subtle differences such as 9 leaves in the first one and 7 in the second and the border treatment is a different technique. It was a challenge and I'm happy with the results.

Now on to another sunflower painting which will be on a 24" x 30" canvas in a landscape format.

Today is Day 14 of my 6 to 8 weeks in a non-walking cast for a broken ankle. Since I can't get out, I have decided to do as many paintings as I can. It's keeping me occupied and very happy!

Evolution of a Canvas

After months of trying to paint something on canvas, which I find extremely difficult as I am more of a paper person, I finally settled on this end result of Sunflowers. When I look back at the stages this poor little 12" x 12" canvas went through I really like Stage 1. Somehow, I can be very spontaneous and loose when working with paper but seize up completely when trying to paint on canvas.

Abstracts have been my main focus for quite a while but I find myself wanting to do some work that is more recognizable for a change.

I have decided to do a series of Sunflowers, inspired by one lonely little plant that grew for me this year out of many, many seeds planted. This is the first and I am working on #2 which is a 24" x 12" canvas to be followed by some larger and some smaller. There will also be some etchings, maybe drypoints and collagraphs as well. I hope I can stay in the sunflower groove!

There are also two more loose landscapes to finish which are in the same vein as the one in my previous post. That should keep me busy for a while!