Froot Loops Is Finished

12x16 acrylic on canvas board

The DH started calling this painting "Froot Loops". It is not my intention to keep that as the official title of this piece, plus Kelloggs would probably consider it a copyright issue, but for now it's fun. 

After staring at the painting for a week, I did decide to do a tiny little bit more to the background; just little hints of foliage and branches with a palette knife (another first for me). I'm pretty pleased with the results and the painting overall. But my open studio mentors have told me I need to bring even bigger brushes next week...

A picture of my charming model from the Pittsburgh Aviary.

Eye of the Beholder

It's not finished yet! The background is giving me fits. In my last post, the background was very fun almost like a children's book illustration, which I like but was not really what I was aiming for with this painting. I then tried to build those fun splotches of color into more foliage-like forms while still keeping it loose and fun. That was not so successful. The background began to have a disconcerting resemblance to camouflage fabric. So I worked away from the blobs and more towards hints of a habitat in the background. I do love the rich greens and moodiness in its current form, but I had hoped for a bit more...something. More abstract and vibrant? More tropical rainforest? More painterly and fun? It is hard to paint a certain way when you can't even put your finger on what it is you are after!

And this is where the eye of the beholder comes in. If I look at this painting as just a painting, I'm very pleased with it. However, if I look at this painting with my original vision for it, I am very frustrated. I showed this latest work to my husband and he argued against doing anything more to the background. He saw it as a portrait and therefore the background should be nebulous. My studio friends are urging me to work the background more. Then again I've heard many people say that the painting will tell you what to do and in this case, it seems the painting wants to be like this. Maybe I am trying to force it to be something it wasn't meant to be. Or maybe I actually need to keep working at it until I get it right. I'm overthinking this. What's your vote?

Keeping Busy

Life is a funny thing, I've noticed. One minute you're despairing of ever creating a new group of friends or of breaking into the graphic design circles in your new town and the next minute you're swamped with freelance work, friends and opportunities. Not that I'm complaining.

I've found a couple of artists who hold an open studio night once a week and I've been painting with them. It's truly the highlight of my week. Their influence is helping me to continue my efforts to loosen up, not be so detail-oriented, and experiment.

I see that while I've been away, Blogger changed their formatting. I'm sure I'll get used to it but things aren't working very smoothly this first time round. Getting images exactly where I want them in the text is still challenging. What does everyone else think of the new Blogger? 

Work In Progress on another toucan. The eye's not painted yet, so it looks a little freaky. My new mentors are threatening to hide all my small brushes so I'm forced to get over my aversion to the big ones.

Painting 36 - Exuberant Toucan

This toucan - which still remains unidentified - is everything I'm not right now. He's colorful (unless you count my red nose), he's smiling, he's exuberant. Well, maybe "exuberant" is taking this a bit too far, but he's certainly got more energy than me. After nearly two years of sniffle-free days, I have at last succumbed to the common cold. Not only am I reduced to a lot of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I'm also downright grumpy. Okay, so I'm not really sick sick, but a cold is really annoying. Not so bad that you can stay home from work, but certainly bad enough to make you miserable at work. How could my immune system have let me down? What about all of those anti-oxidants I ingest; rooibos tea, leafy greens and dark chocolate? My serious attempts at 8 hours of sleep a night? Dragging myself out of bed after said 8 hours to exercise? But hey, I suppose while I'm sitting here keeping the facial tissue industry in business I can take comfort in the fact that, according to Star Trek, they still won't have found a cure for the common cold by the 23rd century.