An Invitation

SOLDHi, everyone! I'm going to stop being shy and ask any of you who are so inclined to click on the ''Followers" button on the right to become 'officially' a follower of this blog. I don't know why I get such a kick out of that, but there you go! As far as I know it doesn't commit you to anything, and you still need to put your email address in the 'Google Subscribers' Box' to get this post in your email as they happen, but... whatever. I'll still appreciate you all even if you don't!

So on to today's painting... I'm involved in a 'Challenge' (a la Karin Jurick) with some pretty fine artists, in that we get 'assigned' an object every month and all paint the object in our own way in a 6x6 format and post them on a blog. This is our first month, and the 'object' is the starfish. It made an appearance in the oh-so-forgettable post with the red bead and white ribbon, as well. I like this one better. When we publish our 1st challenge, I'll give you the blog address and you can take a peek. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Summer Memories, Oil, 6x6

Many, many times while I was painting this today I said to myself: "What was I thinking?" All those 'white' items???? Of course none of them is actually 'white', but a combination of white and different colors. I had a hard time with this one in photoshop - the shell had more bluey grays and the ribbon had a yellowish cast to the dark side. But when I tried to correct for that the background got turquois-y. It leans towards that but is more periwinkle. And here I go with the ribbon again - you'll see lots of them till I feel like I've mastered it. Today's is at least better than yesterday's! The addition of the red bead.... just because I have it!

Long Time Gone....

First of all I want to thank everybody who sent encouraging comments to me - I've been a whole month 'immersed' in the baby dog! Now, I think it's a good investment of my time, since he's going to be my companion for (hopefully) many years, but it's been hard not to paint. It's getting better, and he's a little doll. (**Valerie you were sooooo right!)

This painting is a 6x6 acrylic - my starfish paperweight that I keep on my yellow kitchen windowsill. There are so many layers of greeny blues that I've hesitated to tackle it. As it is, when it was finished my son said "that's great - it looks like I could pick it up!" while my husband said "umm... you can hardly tell what it is...."

Among the things that have kept me away from posting recently is the plethora of Spring juried shows. After 2 total smackdowns of my Big Sky from the Littlest State series, that I'd worked on so hard this winter I think I'm going to NOT enter juried shows for a little while. Take a break. I'm in really good company this year, but still, I think I'd rather just paint for my own sake, and not rely on jurors to affirm my art. We'll see how long this lasts, as I am at heart rather competitve!

More than you need/want to know: last week I saw a Medium, and it was very cool. She said - without prompting - that I must work in a creative field and that I need to try a different direction. I had been thinking earlier that day about the very cool art I've encountered in the blogsphere (you know who you are!) and how I'd love to experiment a little more, like them. For instance - HOW does Manon Doyle (see link to the right) get those loose, lovely ethereal images? Oh, there are so many that I check in on and wistfully linger at! So I'm giving myself not only permission but an order to experiment more and not say 'no' to any new artistic whim. Today I'm painting pillows, and my theme is aquatic (thinking starfish, again)... we'll see....

And Paco needs his own blog, I think.... any thoughts for a title?