Double Down 2013-W21

What a crazy week!  For my own amusement, I keep a list of the countries whence (i.e. from where) my blog has international visitors.  I was bored on Thursday afternoon and found that since Saturday, I'd had my first visitor from seven countries, thus bringing the total up to 26.  In alphabetical order, the seven were Columbia, Cyprus, Egypt, Indonesia, Italy, Lithuania, and Pakistan.  Definitely pan-global.  And sometime on Tuesday my blog had its 1,000th viewing...  so, a big thank you to all who have visited.  I appreciate your support!

Meanwhile, about the same time that my 1,000th view was happening, I was reflecting on how I've been diligent about painting every Saturday morning.   Not just happy about successfully honoring the commitment, but happy to be spending the time that way.  So why not double the pleasure?  Being good with math, I figured that half a week from Saturday morning would be a three hour chunk on Tuesday evening.  And so starting the 28th, I'll do art Tuesday evenings as well.

But I think one blog post a week is plenty for now.  I might have two works to show, or maybe a small shot of the work in progress to accompany the finished product.  Time will tell.  All I can say is I'm looking forward to double the fun.  And, I hope you all will continue to look in from time to time too.

Speaking of works in progress, today at Salon deWinchester I only managed to get the background blocked in.  I may get back to painting later today, or I may leave it for Tuesday night.  Here in the meantime is an excerpt to add color to this posting until the completed painting materializes...

Well, as it happened, I did put in some time on the dreary Memorial Day weekend.  In the end, though, I finished up on Tuesday night and here you go.  Enjoy!

Driving Doggy III

Orange You Glad I Caught You Up? 2013-W20

Last week's blog talked about beavers and capybaras.  This week I could mention goats or sheep, (whichever eats more grass) because a wee flock of them would come in handy today.  During my absence the lawn has overgrown the maximum height for my push mower to fell.  But I will deal with that later.

Meanwhile, I have been industrious:  sorted out the remainder of my palette reworking as mentioned in blogs 2012-W42, -W43 & 2013-W01.  Glad to have that behind me!  Managed to finish reading Art & Fear, so I can cross that off my list of 2013 Art Resolutions.  With all that done, what next?  So this week I am pausing to ponder and plan for Summer...

I have a current canine series to finish, think I'll do the last(?) of those at the May 25 Salon deWinchester.  I've made studies for several large paintings, and since that is another of my resolutions I guess I'll bust out one or two of those in June.  And I'd like to try abstracts and acrylics — maybe I'll combine those into one super-maddening effort.  In fact, might as well save that until it's god-awful hot to really make the experience furstrating!

Yet with all this clarity about what to do in the weeks ahead, I was stumped about what to do today.  For inspiration, I looked back through my photo files and reviewed the "hierarchy" of genres.  (Plus I wanted to use up a particular pair of paints in my palette.)  After I put all that in a mental jar and shook vigorously, I first opted for an orangey monochrome portrait of my friend Donna.  This explains the juvenile pun in the blog title.

When suddenly, I managed to pop those unwanted colors out of my palette — so at the last minute I elected to do a quick portrait study using a couple of new-to-me cobalt pigments.  In my defense, I painted this in under 45 minutes using only green, violet, and a touch of magenta.  The portrait depicts the great French artist Gustave Caillebotte, whose forgiveness I beg.

 

Caillebotte

Like a Beaver 2013-W19

Like a beaver, today I am busy.  Probably too busy to paint.  A few weeks back, though, I had to make two paintings in a single sitting — one of which I held in reserve for today.  Also like a beaver, today's subject capybara is a rodent.  The biggest, in fact.  Beavers are #2 in heft but possibly try harder than capybaras, which eat grass instead of chewing down trees.  Unfortunately for the vegetarian capybara, it seems they are the favorite food of jaguars and (gulp) anacondas.  Finally, during my prep work for the (so-so) painting, I was fascinated to discover that the Spanish word for capybara is in fact carpincho and not capybara.  So maybe you can win a bar bet with that, regardless of whether or not you enjoy the painting.  Peace!

Yo Soy un Gran Carpincho

Propuesta Six 2013-W18

I've been concentrating on my 2013 Art Resolutions this week, grinding through a boring part of Art & Fear.  And it's about time for another Propuesta.  The propuestas arise in a Spanish-language book on creativity with watercolors, and so far they have been interesting...  I've picked up a trick or two.  And scraped some rust off my limited Spanish.  Gracias, Google Translate.

All of which brings us to the next, Propuesta 6 — a fantasy landscape featuring oriental buildings.  And as they say, I am not feeling it.  Too specific, and the subject matter barely interests me.  Whereas I explored all the prior propuestas at least twice, I predict #6 will be a one-and-done.

In any case, my lack of enthusiasm for the project was offset by my cheer painting and socializing with my fellow artists at Salon deWinchester after many weeks.  Happily, our hosts have a painting that provided better inspiration for this propuesta.  I'm glad to have it behind me!

Propuesta 6:  Fantastic Village