Billowing Magenta

This one's a piece of subtle happiness.  It's almost monochromatic, but then I felt the green was in order.  The silver over grey is interesting in person, with different play in various lighting.

Again, I struggled a bit with not wanting to "mess it up", since the pink and white cloudiness came so easily and I liked it as is!  I don't know if I would have gone bolder with the botanics, but I still like the effect.  These cloud-scapes keep coming out of my paintbrush, and the inky releases are so much fun to watch and leave be...

I used symbols from a favourite deck- Animal Spirit By Kim Krans.  Somehow I wanted all entities represented- earth, water, fire, air and spirit.  Plus, I've been loving incorporating triangles lately, so this just felt right!

Enjoy your week!

Magenta Mountains

This one is very hard to photography, so we'll just have to know that it's more special in person!  It seems to be shining on the collage pieces below, but where the actual shine is- the copper sun- it seems dull... Hmm.  (Someday maybe I'll have a good scanner/printer for this work.)

Anyway- my process.  I always keep gessoed pages ready to capture excess paint while I'm painting. This page began to immerge as oranges, pinks and purples and blacks, but it was very busy with lots of cool marks...  So I decided to cut it for collage.  I've  been thinking about triangles a lot.  First I played with making an all over pattern on the brayed wood panel, but then I decided to use these in a more abstract mountain way.  (Go figure- me and mountain lines!)

Even though I still almost over worked it- stop while you're ahead and before you do something you will be bummed about!!!- it came out pretty nicely.  ;)  I am enjoying sitting down and creating and then finalizing without so much hemming and hawing and putting things on hold.  So this challenge seems to be working.

Enjoy your week!

Carefree Courage

Hello!  This was one of those days where I went through a range of emotions- excitement, interest, despair, disgust, courageous, carefree, curious, unsure, almost stuck, brave and then happy and proud!

If you look on the Palmsprout Facebook feed, you'll see how this painting unfolded- how it had a beautiful warm background and then a beautiful little face, then a painting fiasco continue, and I did what I often envy other artists for- I bravely covered it almost entirely over with more ink...  In the end there are a bit here and there peaking through, but a totally new layer of darkness changed the direction.  

Interestingly, I made almost the exact face as a practice in my art journal, and she came out to be a lovely piece.  I guess it was all meant to be. 

Wishing you carefree courage in what ever you are trying (and failing) at this week!

Howlin' at the baloon

This weekly challenge is helping me finish things!  Even though these layers take time to dry between each, I still sometimes get stuck and put a piece "aside to think", which ends up being an indefinite unfinished business...  So this piece was on that track, but because I needed to finish it this weekend, I made a choice, and the wolf is just what I needed to make this have "something extra".  

I am learning that part of my "putting it on hold" impulse in art is when I have an idea and then the immediate feeling like I don't have the skills to actualize that idea.  This weekend I just went for it, drawing that wolf multiple times until I was happy with it, then I rolled paint across a piece of paper, waited for it to dry, then transferred my drawing onto it!  Yay!

Wishing you a week of reflection and learning more about your fears and behavior patterns!

PS That is a goofy title, but it might stick!

Mountain Calm

I am really feeling good about this challenge.  It's been reminding me to "just finish" a piece, rather than wait and wonder if I ought to do something else or "make it better".  I think this has also helped me leave a piece alone before I fuss with it too much and then don't love what I did...

I have been so drawn to mountain lines and they still make me happy. 

 I love the combo with these big circles.

Mountain Calm, Acrylic on wood.

Enjoy your week!

Calm

Here I am, letting go, creating a crazy background, 

setting with it and then finding calm amidst the storm!  

Using Aquaboard is great for this "just-create-without-so-much-thinking" challenge since the best effects come when you don't try to manipulate it so much and just go with the flow- literally- the ink is flowing around in the water on the surface and interacting with the other ink puddles in unique ways.  

For instance on the upper right side you see a cool shape that reminds me of a tree on a cliff being blown.  I don't think I could have got that delicate organic-ness if I tried, and if I had messed with it I would have lost the beauty.  

The orange pieces are from a watercolour piece of paper, with similar zen relaxed effects- paint with salt and then sit back and see how it dries...

Wishing you peace and calm this week- 

or the ability to relax and enjoy the storm, 

which is pretty much the same, maybe?

Water is Life

I'm finding it interesting that I named this challenge "not-so-sacred" and the messages that have been speaking to me are pretty sacred!  (Must be the times we are living in right now!) I started this wanting to make sure that I keep a weekly practice of playing, exploring and not worrying so much about the outcome of a painting.  This I've done, though this week I am a day late, since so many paintings were in progress and needed drying between going forward.  For instance the paper for the flag and boat are both painted as well, and then I cut that out and used them for the imagery.

The Standing Rock message- Water is life- is one that has been pulling me lately.  If, in fact, we soil these waters, then many states down stream would be without clean water.  I feel it is so important to reflect and make choices that will help our future society, not just help the here and now, or those who already have a lot of money and power.  

The concept of a water protector is beautiful, and a metaphor for our own lives.  

What do you protect and find so sacred in your day to day life that you would take a stand for it?

This one is in dedication to all those people in the freezing cold, 

standing up for something they feel is quintessential for our life- clean water.

Mni Wiconi

Water is life.