Imbibing Color, Texture and Surface!

Yesterday I decided to try painting on Aquabord again, and I think I'm completely SOLD on it now. My first intro was in a Robin L. Makowski workshop last year, where we painted quite realistically. Below is one of the pieces I did in that workshop - "Love of My Life," a portrait of our Nicodemus, who passed away in 2013.

Love of My Life

While I enjoyed the subject very much, I'm not too interested in the tight, realistic style. So when I decided to paint claret cup cactus on a piece of Aquabord yesterday, I thought I'd try a looser style that is more similar to how I generally paint.

Claret Cup

So in this case, not only the vibrant color of the claret cup (also known as hedgehog) cactus blossoms and the prickly texture of spines and other sticker-y stuff engaged me. I also was inspired to try a different painting surface. I think I like it and will be doing more on Aquabord.

More Desert Beauties

It's April, it's spring and I'm being inspired by the gorgeous spring beauties around me. One of the biggest surprises here when I first saw it was the desert willow flower. Chilopsis linearis to be exact, a member of the catalpa family! Desert willows come in several varieties, some "wilder," some benefiting from a little domestication. This particular one came up voluntarily, next to the walk in front of our house. My husband thought it was too close, so I tried to move it. Of course that didn't work, but surprise! It came up again the next spring, same place. We decided to leave it, and it grew into the most gorgeous little tree that shaded the walk.  Last year, I took photos of the flowers that remind me of little orchids:

chilopsis linearis

Then last week, when I was looking for flower pix to paint from, I was stopped by this one.

Here's the quickie painting I did:

Desert Willow

Joy in the Morning

There's something -- actually, a lot of somethings -- about morning that just makes me smile. Sitting on the patio with my green tea, listening to the sights and sounds, being awed and entertained by all creation around me, I can't keep from smiling to myself. This morning, I had to run for the camera, thinking how inspiration for paintings was all around.

steel raven sculpture, yucca in bloom and acrobatic grackle (on street light)

The simplest things can make me smile when I am in that so-grateful-to-be-alive mode. If one looks at the details in his environment, inspiration just follows.

baby tomato plant, enjoying the morning sun
(it was a volunteer!)

white winged dove, warming himself in the sun
(look at those toes!)

Inspired...but Still Struggling with "How"

Remember this sketch from a ways back?

A line of doves, jostling for position on the rock wall behind our house, made me laugh. They looked like a bunch of western dancers with red feet! I did a real quickie sketch with a ball point pen on the back of an envelope!

Earlier this week I came across the sketch and wondered what I could do with it. The little watercolor sketch on drawing paper, below, was my first stab.

This one seems funnier, with the three light colored doves in a line and a darker dove showing off in front of them. But I'm not convinced yet it's the right approach. Any suggestions from my blog followers would be welcome!

I still feel inspired by the original idea. This is just proof that inspiration alone isn't enough. We need the tools to express our emotional responses. Composition, technique, color theory...those are the artist's tools of expression.

A Fine Day for Flying

Where does inspiration come from? I think we've pretty much established that it comes from emotion. So how did these two "buzzards" engender emotion and spark a painting? I took a photo of two turkey vultures sitting near a dumpster outside a restaurant in Terlingua, Texas. Although we were looking for a place to eat breakfast, I swore I couldn't eat THERE. Bill and I collapsed into giggles. From there, the picture of the "buzzards" became funny. Six years later, I decided to paint them - with a twist. I thought it would be funny to have one "buzzard" looking at the viewer. I changed their postures and body proportions a bit to make them funnier. Judge for yourself.

"Carl and Dewey"

Chromotherapy!

"Chromotherapy" is a type of light therapy that hasn't (yet?) been accepted as a science. Proponents say that chromotherapy can balance energies in the body and therefore cure disease. I remember reading about it in a Robert Heinlein book more than 50 years ago...it was fascinating then and I was intrigued. It's still fascinating - the idea of chakras, or energy centers along the spine, makes sense to me today and I am still tickled, charged up, shaken by color in my environment.

Pink and red are notorious shaker-uppers. When the pink prickly pear and claret cup cactus in my yard bloomed at the same time, I was thrilled! Had to paint it!

Pink and Red...

The painting isn't finished - there are problems remaining that need to be resolved (prickly pear pads that look as though they are soft and fluffy, flowers that are blobs instead of blooms, etc.), but just looking at those pinks and reds next to each other transports me right back to the morning I sat in the dirt and painted this with a giant brush, inhaling the desert air and the bird song around me. How's THAT for inspiration?

More Scribbling...

The second in what I hope will be a series of wild pots, here's "Scribbly Pots 2," just finished. I'm still feeling inspired by the wonderful tempera/ink technique learned in a workshop last month. Although I must admit I'm doing it my own way, not using it quite as it was taught. But I think that would be fine with the teachers, both very imaginative and expressive artists who believe in thinking outside the box.

Scribbly Pots 2

This work started with a poured background, using brilliant colors: quinacridone rose, nickel azo yellow and manganese blue. After drying completely, I used templates to decide where the pots should be, then drew around them. Next, I brushed on white tempera to protect certain areas, scribbled into the wet tempera with the handle of a brush, allowed the tempera to dry, then dribbled and brushed on sepia acrylic ink. When that was dry, the whole thing was scrubbed with a toothbrush in cool water. I stapled the wet paper to a board and allowed to dry, then began to paint back in with the same brilliant colors, pushing and pulling the pots into different positions. Last, with a tiny brush, I added the "sun" in the background with watercolor.

I'm still enjoying the technique, feeling inspired by the challenge.