Time's a wastin'

Harmonium's last day on the easel.

One minute I'm chugging along in the studio at a measured pace, one eye on finishing up the series for  my next Mason Murer group show, the other on a new triptych that's in the drawing stages, and Wham.
First an email pops up about a Mid-summers Nights Dream Show in June (small works, under $2000, one night only) Sure, count me in.
Followed by a letter accepting two of my paintings - Clothe the Naked and Thirsty - for the Decatur Arts Festival fine art show. Yippee.
This morning I confirmed the date of the show at Mason Murer, which I had a hazy idea was scheduled for end of April, beginning of May....nope. My paintings are due on April 10th for an April 13 opening.  I'm sending three ( maybe four) Answered Prayers) and three (maybe four) of the Tomato & Knives paintings.
Yikes! I lunged across my desk to the easel, where I have been moving paint to canvas ever since.  I don't expect to surface from the studio until April 9th. Nothing beats a deadline.

Answered Prayers:Harmonium

Pressed onward with Harmonium. Far from complete but it's beginning to come together.


Worked on the the tiles floor and the altar marble today, the harmonium last weekend.


Need to take on the marble steps next. I'll eventually glaze the candle light reflection using Indian yellow with a touch of crimson. Trying to build enough brightness to shine through it after it's glazed. There are myriad gleaming wires in the body of the harmonium that I have yet to place.

Answered Prayers: Harmonium & Answered Prayers: Aphrodite

Returned to Answered Prayers: Harmonium yesterday. Mostly worked on the candles and altar area, and the harmonium keys. Compared to the little tomato paintings this thing is huge, lots of canvas to cover. Kind of fun to haul out the big brushes. The photo is off because the light is glaring on the center pew, but you get the idea.


Today I worked on Answered Prayers: Aphrodite.  Once I get paint on all the canvas, including the candelabra, upper wall and the cherub on the right, I'll tackle the shadowed nude on the left. It's going to take a lot of layers to get the dark as deep and velvety as I want.

Born a bubble off of plumb, off-kilter perspective works for me

Current incarnation of the second Sgian Dubh. I got rid of the fussy background and am much happier with it. Still need to darken up the handle a bit, and add some more glisten to the tomato.





Back to the harmonium, fiddled with the placement of the tile, and where I want the reflected candlelight. The perspective is definitely wonky, but I've decided that the slightly off kilter-ness suits me. I'm thinking of it as a happy accident.

Did a bit more on the Divided canvas. I won't be putting climbing pitons on the wall - they would be invisible at this scale. Might lean Emily's banjo on the wall. Jury is still out on this one.


Finished a drawing yesterday of a new candle set up, not shown here. It's horizontal, half in shadow and half candle lit in front of a scrolling bit of marble and half obscured cherub. I'm going to add a woman's torso seen from behind to the left side of the canvas, not unlike the male in Gripland, but more shadowy. Heh.

Patterns and texture

Worked on Harmonium again: the marble veining at the top, and the patterns in the tile below. I'll be adding texture for ages. Glad I've got four paintings in rotation (not counting two small tomatoes.)

 

 Stiletto about finished. The photo is lacking some of my favorite details. For example, on each candle is a wisp of a black wick with a red spark on the tip. The flames are a curve of blue, then pale yellow punched up with flake white. They are flickering because when someone kicked her shoes off and ran, she created a draft.

Got my son to leave me a bit of climbing equipment he calls a quickdraw - it looks like two carabiners linked by a little flat bit of a strap. I plan to hang it off one of the candelabra arms in Twirly.

Harmonium Keys

Had a great day developing the harmonium.

Mostly it was about keyboard, knobs and going a little crazy with color in the shadows.

Next I'll be working on the different marbles doing veining. Those patterns reminds me of maps seen underwater. Very Zen, hand-eye activity.

About to draw my second horizontal image that's half velvety dark shadow and half illuminated carved stone and candles.

Took some photos to Wolf today - another couple of images for the behind the scene crew series that I'm pulling together. Feels great to be going full tilt in the studio.