Sometimes You Have to Ride...part 1

A new painting I'm working on, maybe called: Sometimes you have to ride.

It's from a dream I had.

I've been wanting to work smaller, but the painting ended up being 4 feet long.

FreeFall-finished

Wow, I cannot believe I haven't written since April. BAD BAD ME. But a lot has been going on, getting ready for the BWAC Pier show. Two sisters leaving for the Camino, Feeling sorry for myself (that takes up a lot of time).
Here is FreeFall. I hope the color is not too off; it was a spur of the moment photo.
I find that if I work TOO slowly on a piece, I lose momentum. Had to push myself to the finish line and for awhile I was really un-nerved by the colors. But now, I like them...I REALLY like them.
If you want to interpret it as related to the real estate problems going on right now, be my guest.

Here and There

I've finally finished this 'small' painting of 12X24. I named it 'Here and There'. Can you figure out why?

The ugly phase and homeless socks

I do believe there comes a time in every painting when it goes thru the 'ugly phase'. Here is this painting in that phase. Of course, ugliness is in the eye of the beholder but for me, the colors are so yukky that I have to just keep going based on faith.
In the meantime, to keep my mind off of the painting, I took a walk in the city with my sister. It's sad to see anyone homeless at this time of year but this was especially poignant: a group of homeless socks, huddled together from the cold. Won't you take one home to hang over the fire? Actually, all these socks had a story to tell. Some are the mates of the better sock that was chosen to hang for Christmas. Some of them said they would rather take their chances on the street than be forced to have a nail stuck thru them and hung for the amusement of some jaded child. Some of them were toeless veterans. When I got home I kissed my socks, knowing how lucky they were to have their own pampered life.

Cruely to Animals..the end

I dragged my feet, but finally I've completed Cruelty to Animals. I was disturbed by the amount of blank space in the painting and fixing that became a lot of fun, as you can see if you compare the previous post and this one. I painted in the same way that I used to draw as a child, making up a story as I went along. I love the end result. The words, if you can't quite read them, are: Beatum Beastia, Beastia Tui and, at the bottom, tit pro tat.
One day, I took a long walk with my sister. We saw these lonely piers.

Tired Angel: Finito

I feel very happy with Tired Angel. It took so long to complete and yet it's not a drag at all in the end. So I wasn't holding it up because of a vague dissatisfaction, like sometimes happens. I really do have to take better pictures.

Here's my sketch for a new piece, Animal Abuse. I haven't decided on the size. Usually I like to jam a lot of stuff into as small a space as I can paint, but this is kind of minimalist...for ME, and I might just go for it: do it as a 30X40. I have to add that I have a LOT of 30X40 canvases.

Special Delivery: final version

Here's the final version of Special Delivery. It's my favorite painting in this style...so far.
I spent one evening taking pictures of all the apocalypse paintings but I must say I'm a bit frustrated with the results. Is it my camera or me? Sections were out of focus and my placement of the lights was definately off: there were spots in the dark and spots with glare. YUK. Another thing to learn.

Dream City

Haven't posted in a LONG LONG time but here's a watercolor from way back when. Painting in watercolor was extreme painting:taking me months to complete and driving me crazy with uncertainty. You know: the blah stage, the ugly stage, the too-beautiful-to-touch stage. Plus spending all that time on my inner life was quite intense.
I did love the results. This was one of my last: an abstract city, loosely based on my true dream city, Gerona.