New Work

Finally some new pictures of what has been keeping me busy. As part of my New Year's Resolution to rework and reuse what I already have, here are a couple of things.

This was originally a discarded canvas from one of my studio mates.  It was quite the struggle.

The canvas was a do over which was also a struggle and then I got the idea to combine my stick project.  I plan on making more of the stick things.  It kind of goes with the ocean theme that people around here like so much.

This one I am especially please with.  It was a paint over of something that wasn't all that bad so it came together pretty quickly.

MFA and Me

I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston ahead of the impending snow storm.  We got out just in time.  I enjoyed the time and I got over my fear of using ISOs above 800.  Even though we saw a very small part of the museum, we managed to see some of the highlights.

Creepy baby head at one of the entrances

A very cool seat

I love the colors

This was an amazing installation

The MFA has an amazing Egyptian collection

I love this painting

Another amazing painting

Here is the actual scene

A John Singer Sargent.  Those are the actual vases as in the picture.

A New Revelation

I realized something the other day.  What I realized was if you did not like a painting and decided to recycle it by painting over it, the painting will retain its original character.  In other words it wants to remain ugly and unappealing.  The resulting make over will be a long, painful and frustrating struggle to change its attitude and become beautiful if it is even possible.  So when do you give up or not?

I came upon this discovery when I did a makeover on a wood panel which wasn't too bad to begin with but I just wanted it to be more.  A few new colors later, and voila! a new work that i am very happy with.

Fast forward to an 18 x 24 canvas which was discarded by one of my studio mates.  Yes, I pick trash.  But let me tell you, this was not an easy fix and it wasn't even my work!  I repainted at least 5 times and today I finally have something worth keeping.  I guess it was worth the struggle but I am glad it is almost done.

I began by asking the canvas what it wanted to be.  I didn't hear anything so I decided  to make it a bouquet of flowers even though I don't paint flowers.  It has become abstract/impressionist  or something like that.

Sorry, no pictures. Still the camera thing.  I don't know how to send pictures from my phone to the blog.

A Few Days Later

I feel like I have already fallen down on my New Year's resolution to post more often.  I have been working a lot lately and I have been at the studio only a couple of days this month.  I am working on a couple of abstracts which are paint overs of not very exciting canvases.  Because my husband went swimming with our small camera, I have been not able to document the works in progress.  I hope to get there tomorrow to work on them and make some progress to the point where I like them.  But for now, here are a couple of pictures from the Galapagos.

An Artful Day

My day was filled with art.  I went to the opening at the Providence Art Club and then to the RISD Museum ( free on Sundays ).  I have to say that the current exhibit at the museum was totally lost on me - I just didn't get it.  It looked like some junk suspended from the ceiling and I saw some prints that if I had done them, they would have ended up in the trash.

The art club had a member show and work from their classes.  That is a place I would like to be a member but it is a little out of my budget.  They serve excellent food and the place is filled with atmosphere and history.  I could spend a lot of time there.

Happy New Year!

I usually resolve not to make resolutions but I am making an exception this year.  Here it is:  I resolve to post more often.  I realize that time tends to get away from me but i will make a better effort to write this blog.  I will also post some more pictures of my South American adventure and i will try to track down my Google password so that I can post from other computers.

And there you have it.