Horizons

I've been so inspired to paint lately.  Nothing like a 2-hour discussion with Barbara McCulloch last week all about oil and acrylic painting, and then another discussion about watercolor painting with my mom last night to get the inspiration flowing!!  Plus, two weeks ago, I was invited to an art night at a friend's to paint using oil paint, something I've been discouraged by for a number of different reasons over the years.  Well, that experience was also amazing.  And so, art day today was about forcing myself to sit down and do something about it.  

The only way I could get any painting to take shape in my mind was to start with a horizon, something Kelly Rae Roberts does in a lot of her work.  The tulips piece above is (I think) complete.  It is my favorite of the bunch.  I primed a piece of wood I had lying in my studio, then went to work after looking to Kelly Rae and a newly discovered artist, Paula Nizamas for inspiration.  It also reflects a painting I saw in Germany once that I loved so much I almost bought it despite it costing half my monthly wage. (I managed to talk myself out of it in favor of paying the rent, but I never have forgotten it.)

Next I pulled out a piece of construction paper I'd primed about 3 years ago.  I had a bunch of old blue paints, so thought I'd do some blending.  That led to the sky, which led to this.  About halfway through, I thought of the fire that is right near our house.  (Below is a picture from our back yard taken a few days ago.)  This piece is far from finished, but I like the path it's taken so far.

Here is another little piece I made, which I love how it turned out.  It started as something TOTALLY different (think: pine tree on a mountain) but it was dumb so I painted over it and started again.  This is painted on a small piece of brown paper bag and will become a card for my dad (Father's Day and such...)

I'm showing you the next one last because I'm struggling the most with it.  The top photo is from early this morning, the before photo.  I had painted this last weekend.  I felt like a 3rd grader - completely unknowing and so just threw colors on the canvas (yep, this one is on canvas).  The red parts are something I'd put on the canvas about 2 years ago, including that rectangle of red fabric.  Well the little farmhouse piece above helped me take the next step with this one, and so you can see it as a continued work in progress in the second photo.  (The neatest thing is that I used my new brayer on this, and I'm liking what it does, although I need to develop some finesse with technique for sure.) 

Here they all are, so you can see then in relation to each other.  I put the scissors in there to give it some scale.  I have to say, I feel VERY fulfilled today, after an entire morning of painting, even though it was hard in some moments.