ON MY EASEL
Warning! You have to read these posts from the bottom up!
I’m going to give a plug here for John Peck who took my ‘knack’ and gave it some technique.
Tah-nah!
This time, I got married, moved into an apartment while house-hunting, and got separated from my oil paints. I decided to work in gouache instead, and thought I’d make a playful homage to Lautrec and to my new mother-in-law at the same time. So, something positive came out of Covid.
And voilà! Here’s where we ended up. California golden.
So I did a little finger sketching on my iphone to see where I wanted to take this. This looked better to me. Less booby. More free. So, it was back to the easel!
So, next painting was inspired by a poem my friend Robyn Murphy wrote for me, entitled “Gold.” It’s a poem about the beauty of the golden Californian hills, the golden Californian grass—basically a consolation to me about feeling old. Too bad the first attempt looked a bit too much like a woman’s breast.
And thar she blows!
Here she is finally on my mantelpiece, not my easel. Next painting date is September 21. Will be staring at a blank canvas then!
It all stalled when...
If you're wondering why the date is so smudged, it's because I DIDN'T finish this in 2017. Read below. I have a good excuse (I think): I had shoulder surgery. Not so easy painting with your right arm able to move, mmm, about 30 degrees. But the shoulder is on the way back now. And the painting also. And THANK YOU, CLAIRE for being patient enough to let my canvas sit on your easel for 10 FREAKIN' MONTHS!! A year by the time it's dry enough to move.
It all started when...
sometime in July 2017, I had a painting date with my friend Claire. It got this far in a two hour session, and then I got busy and it's been here ever since. But as I've painted "2017" in, I have to finish before the year's out, so...watch this space!