On to adulthood

I few posts ago I showed you picture of an "adolescent"painting still in its ugly awkward phase (click here to see). Here's the finished painting, all ready to be delivered to its new home. 

T.J.'s Winter, oil on copper

I'm so proud to have been able to usher it on to adulthood.  ;-)

T.J.'s Winter, detail

Adolescence

A current painting in its "adolescent" phase

You remember that age- the awkward tween years when suddenly your body didn't fit you right, your skin started doing weird things, and you forgot how to talk to anyone over the age of 12 or any member of the opposite sex of any age. It was rough. It was embarrassing. But you got through it, and look at you now! Wearing clothes that fit, understanding how makeup works, and talking to bank tellers and grocery store clerks without stuttering or blushing. 

Well this is just a reminder that brain children go through the same awkward phase. They start out as beautiful, pristine canvases (or lumps of clay, or in my case, sheets of metal) full of potential. Then, as they develop you may reach a point where you say, "Is this really going to work?" and you fear that your poor little creation is destined to forever be an ugly duckling. See it through. Nurture and love it for what it could and will be. Like I've said before, you gotta work past the ugly (click the link for other works in progress and the source of that quote)! 

Any of you ever given up on a project because you just couldn't stand the ugly phase? It happens. Any of you ever pick that abandoned project back up and see it through? I'd love to see the results and hear your stories!

Stay tuned for follow-up pictures in the development of the painting above.

Bi-State Art Competition

Shine
5"x7"
Oil on Brass

I am excited to announce that two of my paintings, Bright Idea and Shine have been accepted to the 39th annual Bi-State Art Competition at the Meridian Museum of Art.

Bright Idea
12"x12"
Oil on Copper

Currently they are on their way to Meridian. Please join me in wishing them good luck, God speed, and safe travels!

You may remember Bright Idea from my series of "work-in-progress" posts. You were a part of its birth and development! Now don't you feel proud of our little painting going out on its own? ;-)

Rock Garden?

My latest painting. I'm still working on a title, but I'm thinking "Rock Garden." 

What do you think?

I was reminded with this painting how much I really love realism. I love looking at something like a brown rock and seeing not just brown, but all the myriad of colors that make it appear brown. If you look closely, nothing is ever just the color it immediately seems. I'm not sure I'm ever more content than when I'm gazing at something beautiful and teasing out the unexpected colors that make up its highlights, shadows, and contours.

Golden Girls rock

I have this sort of high-minded belief that you shouldn't buy art to fit a particular space or because the color-theme matches your couch. It seems like if you only obtain things you love, they all seem to work together somehow. However, I've amended this creed somewhat and have come to realize that sometimes the perfect piece for a room can make the entire room a work of art. 

This is my bathroom: 

Note the pink tile. It's not 50's bubblegum pink. It's more of an 80's mauve. The walls were previously a pinkish beige, which was fine with the previous owner's decor, but didn't really suit us.  When it came time to paint, let me tell you, we struggled to find a paint color that we liked with the mauve that didn't make it look like it belonged on the set of Golden Girls (click on the link to see a blogger who was totally inspired by the idea of modernizing the Golden Girls' style). Come to think of it, their couch was about the same color as these tiles. 

Then, I found these:

and inspiration struck. I would do a painting of river rocks for the bathroom, bringing in the pinkish color of the tile and paint the walls a beautiful river rock greenish grey! Perfect. So and painted the walls greenish grey, and I painted this:

And it sold before I even got to try it out in my own home! Not that I'm complaining at all. It sold to Energen, Birmingham's Natural Gas corporation, for their collection of Alabama artists.  I've painted a couple of smaller ones, too, but none have made it to their pre-conceived spot. Again, not complaining! So, I started a new one. I gave you a sneak preview of it here. Here it is now:

Stay tuned for more progress. 

The moral of this story? Inspiration can come from anywhere. Even pink tiles.

How about all of you out there in computer land. Ever been inspired by anything totally weird and random (a la doorknobs and faucets)? Tell me about it! Send me pictures and let me know if you would like me to share them on this blog. 

Coming soon

Here's a sneak peak at my current work in progress:

Stay tuned for more. Same art time, same art channel. (Click on the link for fun, or for you super-youngsters that didn't get my reference). 

For more posts like this, check out:

Work in Progress Finished- Take 2

Work in Progress Day 1- Work Past the Ugly

Work in Progress Finished- Take 2!

Oops, I lied. In my last post I told you that Bright Idea, my work in progress that you have watched me finish step-by-step, was done. However, the more I looked at it, the more I felt that something was missing. Let's play the "What's different?" game.
Here's the "finished" painting that I showed you in the last post:

And here it is now:

Do you see it? It's not the bolder color. Sorry, that was a photography error on my part. The second photo is truer to the actual painting. Look again. It's subtle and tiny, but I think that it makes a big difference. Do you give up?

It's the filament inside the lightbulb. I left it out on purpose originally because, though my work is classified as realism, I purposefully don't make it exact or photorealistic. That's where creative license comes in. Like I said, though, the more I looked at it, the more I realized it NEEDED the filament. My husband (and art critic in the best sense of the term) agreed. 

That's what I love about painting. No mistake is totally permanent. Some take more work than others, but everything is fixable. it's nice to have an area of life that's so forgiving. 

What do y'all think? Do you agree that the filament was a necessity? Have you ever thought something was finished and then revamped it? Maybe even totally. I'd love to see or hear about it!

To see the full journey from start to finish, check it out, here,  here, here, here, here, and here (in that order).

Work in Progress- FINISHED!

Here it is! Bright Idea is finished at long last.

To see the many stages it went through click here, here, here, here, and here (in that order). Now, I just need to make a frame.

Work in progress: Movin' right along!

Thanks to my wonderful baby getting on a nap-time routine, I've really made some progress on Bright Idea. I've decided that in a weird way working around baby girl's schedule has actually made me a little more disciplined. I know that I only have an hour to paint and I get right to work rather than letting other stuff get in my way and distract me. Here's how it looked my last post:

The next time I painted I mainly focused HERE: 

And here it is now:

I think all I have to do is figure out those silly corners that are giving me such trouble. Any tips anyone?

Work in progress (or "Guess who's back!")

I have an announcement. I, yes I, mother to a 5-month-old (and disorganized owner of 3 dogs AND now aspiring Pilates instructor- more on that later) am FINALLY feeling back to normal and am painting again. So, back to my work in progress, tentatively called Bright Idea. You may remember MONTHS ago, back before I wasn't so pregnant that painting was an aerobic endeavor, I started a painting. You can see the first posts here, here, and here. Well, I've gotten to work on it a few times lately and here's the current progress:

I'm going to have to stop categorizing my progress by day (day 1, day 2, etc.) because sometimes I get to work for 10 minutes, sometimes 2 hours, but the important thing is, I'm working and it feels great!

I need some help, though. The corners are bothering me. The bowl that I placed the lightbulb in to "pose" for this painting has a lattice-type pattern around the lip. I'm not sure how I feel about it in the painting, though. So talk to me people. What do you think? Is it distracting? Interesting? Does it add to the picture or is it just pointless? 

Tell me what's going on with y'all, too? Life changes making time for art difficult? How are you coping? Update me. 

Work in Progress- Day 3- Making (slow) progress

Work in progress- 2nd coat

I don't know if you can tell it or not, but I've started the second coat. I got about 1/4 of it done today. This stage is always just a little frustrating because, since it's my second coat, I feel like it should look better than it does. However, once I step back from it, I realize it really is coming along. I started at the top left corner , however I wiped off that paint and am going to go back to that part. I felt that the lattice work was looking too sharp and may draw attention away from the lightbulb and its reflections. I'll have to experiment with how best to do the corners.
On a side note, I'm thinking of calling this piece "Bright Idea," (Get it? It's a lightbulb...). What do y'all think?

Work in progress- Day 2- First coat finished

Obviously, I finished the first coat- it's always my least favorite coat, however it also goes the fastest. I don't get to really get lost in the colors and details of the painting during this coat, though, because it's all about mapping it out generally. Plus, since I work on metal, I can't get too detailed with the first coat just because the surface is still so slippery. Now the fun part :)

Work in progress- Day 1 "Work past the ugly"

My friend Sunny Carvalho took a class once from a woman who kept reminding her students that "ya gotta work past the ugly." That has become my mantra because most paintings, especially the ones that turn out well, have at least one point where you look at them and go, "What am I doing? This looks terrible!" As visual artists, I think it's really easy to immediately cast a work of art aside when it gets to that stage, whether it's because we're afraid to proceed, embarrassed for others to see the ugly stage, or because we don't know that even the most beautiful of swans has to spend some time as an ugly duckling.

I started a new painting today and currently, it looks pretty awful. I've come to expect that, though. However, its ugliness inspired me to share the many life phases of my paintings with you. So, here it goes!

Day 1: I drew an outline in pencil of where the main objects and reflections of the painting would be, however I didn't take a picture (it probably wouldn't have shown up anyway). So, we'll skip just to the painting part. I didn't quite finish the first coat, but above is what I got done today.

Not lookin' great, huh? The prettiest part of the painting currently is the copper which has yet to be painted. Be patient, though. It'll get there. I'll be posting in-progress pictures of the painting in the next few posts and we'll see how it turns out. In the meantime, take it easy on yourselves. If you're working on something that just doesn't seem to be flowing, remember, "Ya gotta work past the ugly."

Love is in the air

It's gorgeous here lately. The past week or so doesn't feel like a typical January in Alabama. The skies are blue, it's cold but bright outside... it makes me feel so good! I've felt really good artistically, too. I don't know if it's the new year, the pretty weather, or just a new mindset, but in a lot of ways I feel like my art career is really just getting starting. I think it's taken me almost 2 years to really truly see myself as an artist and to believe that I'll succeed.

Lately painting feels like magic- how is it that I'm allowed to mix colors together and make new colors? How is it possible that paint can recreate objects so that other people can see them the way I see them? I feel in love with my oil paints all over again and find myself trying to steal a few extra minutes with them here and there. I think I'll go steal a few now.

Fall fever?

I feel like with the changing of the seasons I always end up feeling stuck in a rut. I get restless and easily bored and easily frustrated. Then the weather kinda evens out and I kinda even out and all's right in the world. I guess I have seasons of my own. 

"Strange Reflections" oil on copper 10"x14"

I've been working on a series of work I'm calling my Reflection Series. I love reflections. I love how something completely true to life can look so abstract and unrecognizable. I've had a lot of fun lately putting things in silver bowls and then painting close-up pictures of them and their weird swirly reflections. However, I feel like I've hit a wall the last couple of days. I'm still trying to figure out if, in situations like that, it's better if I just stop what I'm doing and do something completely different or if I should just keep working. I think today, though, it's time to get out of the studio. I have hundreds (literally) of flower bulbs that my sweet Memaw bought us as a housewarming present. I'm going to go play in the dirt. 
I don't remember who said it, but I heard a quote once about how planting a garden is the epitome of hope. Planting a garden implies faith that spring will come and you'll be around to see your tulips and daffodils bloom. I like that thought. Then maybe I'll come in and play with my art supplies and see if new ideas bloom. If not, at least I'll have tulips in the spring.