Jumping around

Jumping around today. Signed the Hambidge Harrow, which I hadn't gotten around to, and added a few random blades of grass.
Painted the two gold rings and necklace/saints medal to Clothe the Naked.
Worked on the dog's face in Thirsty - pulled his muzzle forward and over the hose just a smidge 

Added lots of specific bits of fur, adjusted the shape of the fur around his eyes, lots of darkening and highlights on the ears, fur to his body and legs, more paint on the collar and tag. Also goldfish got a good going over.

Vegetable Mineral

Added more grasses. Highlighted some that were there. Added more warm tones.


I've been working on various leaves in this basket. Just ambling around. The basket itself is my next target. I'll be adding darks and lights to each woven strip. I'm thinking about adding something else, but I don't know what. A compass, maybe. I wish I had an interesting one that would be recognizable at this scale.


I have a knife and tomato (drawn but not painted) that I've pulled out. There is something about that red that calls to me. I get thisty for it.

Adding long grasses to the Harrow

It's been a while since I updated my painting world. A new puppy has turned out to require lots of attention and supervision. However, there is light at the end of the kennel, uh tunnel.
Here's the latest on the Harrow. Added more grass. This could go on a bit longer, but it's nearly done.

In the queue - progress report on the South of Eden series

Working on several canvases at different stages. Here's the line-up.
Paradise Lost - Probably a third done. With a big push, it'll be done by the end of February. I did the watering can today and the mossy band across the bottom has a zillion more twiddles and fidgets of moss, leaves and pine needles. Only a trillion more to go. Next - all those leaves along the top. It's the priority. 30x40
Grind - One layer all over, so maybe one fourth done. The wood grain is interesting and the husk is looking good. I hope I am better with corn now that I've done spin. The coins are a beeyatch because I'm working from four or five references. At the end of today I painted the needles. I tapes them to a a board for angle, and set them next to the grinder for scale. They turned out to be so close to life size, I ended up holding the needle in my left hand and painting with my right. I went with no cap because a needle is dangerously sharp and adds that element to the painting. Also, I can always add the orange, but it would be very difficult to try to get rid of it. They worked out great. You would have thought I'd been painting hypodermics all my life. Now that I've made the decision to include this element, the title will revert to Corn & Consequences. 16x20
Spin - close to complete. just one more round on the darker area of the corn and a little glaze on the dark area of the yarn. A week or two to dry, then varnish. Want to enter it in a show with a Feb 8 deadline. 24x24
Seasonal - Two layers of snow done, no fruit started. Very small - 8x10 - but the white is really slowing me down. I'm thinking of it as a study for a larger version that will be 85% snow.
Harrow - maybe halfway, maybe less. It depends on how long a field of knee high grass blades take. But it is my least necessary piece. I can finish it whenever. 14x18
Equilibrium - Started yesterday. Did part of the chest top and the dark green silk background. Miles to go. 18x24
Calibration - gridded and gessed canvas, gridded reference. Prepped to draw. Tons of elements, a lot going on. 24x30

I know it sounds a little crazy, but they will all start popping off the line and out of the studio. Much like Metamorphosis. That's the plan anyway.

Harrow

Worked on the harrow today and have it pushed along enough to start laying in the long blades of grass after this dries.

A good end to a good year

Finished a 24x24" drawing of the spinning wheel making gold thread out of corn silk. The background is three yards of brown velvet, and the wheel is old polished wood, so the overall effect is very chiaroscuro, all dark with the gold of the corn silk and thread picked out. The wheel is cropped in to weight the focus of the painting to the silk. I don't think the drawing will show up very well, but here goes.

Did a smaller corn in the grinder drawing - 12x16 - that I'm okay with but not as excited.

Figured out what was wrong with another composition - a basket of vegetables - peppers, squash, tomatoes - in front of tilled rows of a garden with espaliered trees in the far background. The garden photo was taken in October and has cabbages ( I think - maybe broccoli or Brussel sprouts) in the rows, whereas the basket of vegetables came from a group I shot this summer. The garden and the produce clashed - wrong season. I've made a list of October vegetables - cabbage, onions, carrots, Swiss chard, radishes and kale for example - and am going to reshoot it. It's funny, I couldn't tell what was wrong, but something kept nagging at me. Then, all I once, I saw it.

Went for a walk in the park with Robert & Parker, came back, and after a nap I did a little more on the Harrow.


Had an email from HHFA, saying I'd sold the painting of Moochie, 'In the Kitchen.' A good end to a good year.

The Hambidge Harrow

Here's the start of the harrow painting from yesterday. It was a misty morning up in the North Georgia mountains. In fact, I think low clouds were passing through. I like the out of focus, hazy feel.

Most of the background blocked in. The foreground is long grasses, knee deep. Once upon a time I would have painstaking painted each blade from the very start. Now I've blocked in some areas and will be going in to pick out darks and lights on top of this, and specific blades in the foreground and across the wheel of the harrow.

I'm going to start another drawing tomorrow. Everything is wet. I remember why I need to have several going at once. Being able to turn to another painting is all that saves me from turning good, clean color into muck, when what it needs is for me to wait.