Artist At Work: Painting Potentials
So it’s Sunday and I am free to spend the day on my art, my blog and maybe (just maybe) a little bit of gaming as well.
I have been wanting to start a painting for weeks (It seems an eternity.) And the more the days roll by spent focusing on keeping the gallery running, the crankier I get because I’m not creating.
So today’s the day. I’ve scheduled a short 8-10 hours of uninterrupted art time. (Blogging and gaming are for breaks.) No customers, no husband, no answering the phone (if I can resist it’s Siren’s call) and if Budda gets too needy he may well get kenneled. (He’s remarkably pushy when he wants attention.) The sign is in the window and I’ve put on some good creative music to coax my artsy fartsy juju into action.
No pressure. No siree, none at all. (my dear friend Barb McGee says sarcasm is a form of repressed rage.)
Hmmm . . . so what do I want to paint.
The Short List
On my short-list (and yes there’s a long list) for patrons are Giraffes, Rhinos and a herd of 5 horses. Also got a Friesian painting that needs to get done. And a recent request for a Raven.
From all the forays to zoos lately, I’ve come away with around 400 Giraffe photos. Some are truly excellent and I’ve got some great giraffe on giraffe interactions and I can’t wait to get to ‘em. (and no . . . it’s not what you think . . . I’m not that pervy.)
What I got in my head may or may not be what my patrons want, but that is the beauty of being me. If they like it, they buy it. If not, it goes on the open market. Either way I am content.
Note: photo shown will not be a painting. But isn’t the color and clarity lovely. (though harder to see all shrunk down like this.) What makes giraffes fabulous is they are odd and elegant all in the same moment.
So I really want to start a giraffe painting but I also have a hankerin’ to do a raven. I love ravens (and crows) they are one of my two totem animals. The first few paintings on my to-do list are of the realistic bent. But my raven . . . well that is going to become part of my Totem Series (I finally came up with a name for the Wild Things/Crayola Critters. Or maybe it is a series within a series.)
For my raven I envision loads of blues and purples with perhaps a fiery red background. I’ve yet to pull my raven and crow photos so that may well be the decider on which way I’m going to go.
So let’s see what today brings shall we. With any luck I’ll have wips and pics to post tomorrow.
Ooo I would love to see a raven among your Crayola Critters! The Totem Series is a good title but I’ll always think of them as the Crayola Critters. They are so cool.
Enjoy your day painting, can’t wait to see what you came up with. Poor Budda.
Hope it was a great painting day! I really look forward to Monday’s (today’s) post. I finally got to start somethng on Saturday (put on my blog today) and got to work on it some Sunday, but was interrupted by company (which I don’t get to often). I probably won’t get back to it until Thursday and am just remembering I have to exhibition sit three hours that afternoon. Already have to be out of the house for something every day this week, including Friday and Saturday. I am determined to make art a regular priority starting next week. I sure can relate to the crabby feeling when it gets put to the bottom of the list.
Robert, I still think of them as my Crayola Critters. Though the Totems are a smaller group including only the Red Buffalo and Yellow Bear. And of course soon to be Blue Raven.So in the end it is a series in a series.
Angela, life definitely gets in the way sometime as I see by your blog it has for you of late as well. But it’s only when I got the “urge” to paint and can’t that I get crabby.
Most of the time if I am making money, I am content.