What floats your boat?

Rocks are inspiring, intriguing and mysterious. They sit around in the studio, I pick them up and listen to the sound of them hitting each other as I juggle a few in the palm of my hand. My fingers rub the smooth surface and wonder how I can make them part of the next painting.

I love the look of buttons in a jar. Some are big and flat, some are little and thick. 4 holes or 2 did they live on a shirt or a jacket? Did the little shiny white one live alone on the back of a little girl's dress?

The line up of spools waiting for their contents to be unwound and reshaped into who knows what.....

My brushes with evidence of washes past call to me. Some of the ferrels are getting rusty but it constrasts so nicely with the blue that doesn't want to let go.

The soft flowing paint that I pushed around with a knife now sits raised and stiff revealing itself after the grit of sandpaper brings back the ridges of color.




*Well, I tried to get creative with the layout and it didn't work, hence the weird spacing.

What's 24X24 And Purple?

What IS 24X24 and purple all over? A 24 by 24 gallery wrapped canvas with purple acrylic on it, of course! Actually it's really even more purple than the photo shows. It has mostly purple with some blue and this shows more blue.

What is it going to be? I'm not telling. You're going to have to watch this blog to find out.

Peace and Love to all,

Kelli

A Diamond Day

I thought I'd continue on the theme of nature photos just for the heck of it. Amazing Hubby and I went out one day with our cameras. We rode out to the west coast and just wandered around, shooting whatever.....

I spotted this heron sitting way up high in a tree and since I had my long lens on the camera I thought I'd try to capture him. I was tickled with what I got. I'm a painter, not a photographer so to be able to catch him taking off like this was great fun - gotta love technology.

That wing span is amazing! There were more shots in this sequence but I didn't want the post to drag on forever. I just picked a few of my favorites. This last shot is dark on the underside but for the others I loved being able to see the details of his feathers. Like my friend Jolene says - some days are diamonds. That's how I felt about that day.

Hope you're having fun and staying cool,

Peace,

Carlynne

Lovely Fish

These koi live in a pond in the Sherman Gardens in Corona Del Mar, CA. The absolutely gorgeous photos were taken by Jim Webster, my sister Shelley's significant other. When my mother visits them in California as she did recently, they take her to all kinds of wonderful places, museums, gardens, national parks, as they do me, when I am there. I greatly appreciate both of them and I am the very happy beneficiary of the photos that Jim is so skilled at taking.

Several of my previous paintings have come from his photos. In fact the painting on the dedication page of our book, Creative Colored Pencil Workshop is from one of Jim's photos (and he is the owner of the original painting). He is the one who first introduced me to digital photography and gave me my very first digital camera. It is impossible to go back to film now.

Jim has an artist's sensibility for composing photos. He is just as likely to take a picture of moss and lichen as he is a flower. He is able to see the abstract designs that nature makes even though he is not a painter. When most people are on vacation, they take photos of the relatives in front of the Grand Canyon. Jim and I tell the relatives to get out of the way, so we can get a good shot.

Koi have been a popular subject for artists for years, possibly hundreds of years, and so have become very prosaic, but it's easy to see why they are a favorite. In these photos, the fish, which are fabulous by themselves, compete with abstract patterns of reflections on the water for attention. These photos will turn up in my paintings and maybe very soon. Thanks Jim.

Peace and creativity to all,

Kelli

No point to this post

There's really no point to this post except the lusciousness of paint! Some people think that's weird but I don't really care. I'm having fun today working in the studio and when I squeezed paint out onto the canvas it was just so beautiful I had to take a photo or two. Saturday afternoon painting and listening John Lee Hooker and Bonnie Raitt..... it's a good day. :)

hope you're having a good weekend,

Peace,

Carlynne

It's all about the pictures

The 2 above are pieces in progress. I actually have 4 of these I'm working on this weekend. I haven't spent much time in the studio lately so this weekend is dedicated to painting. Today's post is all about the pictures. I think I used up all my words on the other blog. I started another blog because I felt the need to keep this one more about the art. The other one is about adoption and my experience as a first mother. So, if you want to see where all the words are they're here

Prairie Path

7x5

Oil Pastel

This one will go up in the Etsy shop soon.

Mosaic 8

8x8

Acrylic

Mosaic 7

8x8

Acrylic

These 2 acrylic abstracts were listed on Etsy today.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Peace,

Carlynne

Where have I been?

I haven't traveled very far in the physical but mentally and emotionally I've been all over the place. I've been out of this world joyful over my new little grandbaby. She's amazing and lives close by so I get to bask in her super baby-ness on a frequent basis.

I've been learning, reading and meeting people in the adoption world. Meeting another mother of adoption loss can be very healing. It's incredibly sad to know how many other women have walked the same road I have but at the same time it's good to meet and share stories. We had our own therapy session over lunch and wondered what the people around us were overhearing.

In my last post I mentioned starting a painting about the Magdalen Laundries, well here's the start of it....

You might not be able to see it very well in the photo but there's a number carved into one of the stones in the wall, 30,000. That's the number of women that are estimated to have been through the laundries in it's 150 year history. Across the stone wall there will be glass shards and of course hanging above the wall is the Pope's mitre. The design is done in gold leaf, you can see the shine of the gold better below.

I was going to go with a stained glass design in the background with some other symbolism but decided it would be too busy. The sky turned out to be a better idea. Now I'm working on getting the glass shards back in place and I have text to add to the mitre. You'll see the finished piece soon. We'll see if I get any hate mail over this one. If you're not familiar with the story read here

So.... where else have I been? Kelli and I got to take off to the beach for a couple of days. Did I take any pictures while there? No! I brought the camera but never got it out, sorry, no pictures to share but we did have a great time. On the way there we went to the Florida Museum for Women Artists in Deland and met some of the artists participating in the Witness to Creativity exhibit going on there now. As always, it's a treat to talk with other artists, watch them work and get insight into what they're creating. If you're able to get to Deland, check out the exhibit.

With all this running around (a lot of it in my head) I didn't get much painting done this past week so it's time to hit the studio.

Peace,

Carlynne