A Ton of Matte Gel Medium

I put a ton of gel medium on this painting today.  So much that its going to take some time to dry.   I wanted to see what it would look like.  I'll keep you posted...

And this, this is inspiring me to paint a watercolour.  I like how the veins look through the leaf.

And this, this inspired me today too.  I couldn't figure out what it's deal is.  I mean, it looks like a fall leaf sorta kinda, but its springtime.  And its so colorful. I saved it, its in my basket.  I know, duh, I can put it in my journal and cover it with a ton of gel matte medium to preserve it forever.  I'm saying this sarcastically, but I still might actually do it.

Well whatever its deal is, it inspired me and I love it.

And this.  Well you know the story here.  It blooms everyday, like it or not.

Lost In Lodi 2016

A map of the race.

If you take a minute to even think about it, this map is hilarious.  Is it really truly the map that these guys (and gals) follow when they're wholehog dirtbiking through the woods?  There's no way.  That map is crazy.  I am in love with that map so much so that we're getting married immediately.
 I want to paint a watercolour version of it.  I want to write an "Ode to the map" poem.   I want to be the one out in the woods when somebody gets lost and has to ask for directions.
Our little teenie tiny town was so much fun yesterday with all the people and all the noise and all the motorcycles and the RV's and the fourwheelers and the muddy riders.  It's all happening, right here.

These riders were rarin' to go this morning.  I wish you could hear how loud it was.

It was loud enough you couldn't hear yourself think.

Wild Bill was right in the middle of it all.  Isn't there a Wild Bill in every community?  I'm sure there is, but our Wild Bill is very very very special.

Ok so can I just talk about these tulips for a minute?  This morning they were drooping over and not looking so great.  The late-season Polar Vortex air dropped in overnight.  I thought they were gonners.

Well they certainly look happy now.  An afternoon of sunshine perked them right back up.

Its as if they were celebrating making it through the cold cold night.

Yay!

Painted Feathers and Studio Garb

Spray painted feathers.  Immediate gratification.

And this vintage head is the perfect place to store them.

I messed up the spray on this one so I went over it with watercolour and a liner brush.  I like it best now.

This little painting has so many layers.  The paint is super thick and its still unfinished.  I had to abandon it yesterday in the studio, it was just too drippy to mess with anymore.  I quickly snapped these pictures before I left.
Let's see how many more layers it will require before something happens that works.  How many layers of paint will a surface actually hold?

This is how it looked at one point, long gone now.

My Easter flowers are still rocking it.

I'm trying to make these gals rock it too.  This is a detail of one of the illustrations I'm working on.  I rather like the purse.

and another...

These backgrounds started to get out of control.  I've been painting with a ton of paint and a ton of water lately.  Tons.  Paint is absolutely everywhere since this craze began.  Its good.
It's sort of leaving me in a fashion quandary though.  For a long time I had to wear my "paint clothes" to feel painting freedom.  But that all changed one day one time while perusing the world wide web.  I saw some random post  that was somebody somewhere in a studio painting in some ridiculous outfit totally inappropriate for making art.  I loved it.  So now its like I can't get enough of it. Two days ago I wore a white lace maxi skirt to the studio.  Yesterday I wore my favorite gypsy blouse with tons of bangles.  The gypsy blouse survived but the bangles have a ton of paint spatters all over them.
I know people paint like this all the time, but I never could.  I had to have the freedom to get messy (which meant I looked like crap when I painted).  Well no more!  And this urge is getting stronger.  I really want to wear my daughter's layered prom skirt over to the studio.  I need to find wedding dresses over at the NewToYou and wear those, they'd be so perfect.  And I'll be so beautiful while painting, absolutely stunning...

Illustration Station

Journal cover.  Unfinished.

I painted it yesterday while I was basking in the ambiance of this hibiscus.  This plant is always in bloom.  Non-stop blooming, that's what I'm talkin' about. Blooming constantly.  I think it loves the art room.
The journal cover was just too drippy to do anything else to, so it'll be waiting for me when I get in there today.

This.  This is a snippet of the story I'm illustrating.  I'm currently figuring out the font and the pages containing the words.  Illustrating is waaay more difficult than painting a self-indulgent pretty picture.  Illustrating might do me in.  As in dead.  D.e.a.d. dead.  At least that's how I felt until yesterday.  Yesterday I had a breakthrough, an epiphany and just in the nick of time I might add.  Somehow while blundering along, as I've been doing for months, something clicked and I can see how I want it to look.  This is major.

I've been working on it so hard, and getting nowhere.  I've been on the hamster wheel.  But by gosh I haven't given up.  I just keep on painting and painting and painting crap-albeit cute enough crap that it keeps me going, but crap, none-the-less.
Its almost as if, like I posted just several days ago, as if I must do it wrong before I can do it right.  In this case it seems like I had to do it wrong every single way it could be done wrong-which is gazillions of ways people.  Lots of ways.  So I've been on this hamster wheel of crappy illustrations and finally, finally, finally one day something happened.  Accidentally, serendipitously, consciously, who cares?!!?  Maybe the Great Creator rolled his great eyes and came right down out of the sky screaming "I can't take it anymore watching you blunder around" and put the paint where it needed to go for me.  Something like that.
However it transpired, I'm grateful, grateful because I couldn't give up and I couldn't go on.

These, these were just pretty.  And I felt like they needed to be acknowledged before the late season Polar Vortex air gets them.  And it was so simple just to snap their picture with my Fancy, much simpler than illustrating.

A Crisp Granny Smith and SuperPowers

I added more landmarks to my Ohio map watercolour.  Better.

This disaster is what I'm working on now in the studio.  Its gone full circle several times.  This is just a quick little detail.  I'm too embarrassed to share the entire mess.  I have high hopes for it today...yes, its all going to come together, today.....

So yesterday I drove by those dang trees again.  They were shining in the sunshine and the wind and everything was so glorious and green and crisp like a granny smith apple that I had to stop.

Would somebody please tell me what that small round white dot on the tree is???

This Sakura Blossom week will be here and gone before you know what hit you. Lucky me, I've had to drive into town so often this week so I've really got to witness the splendor.  Every single time I experience them there's this overwhelming feeling of happiness radiating from all the people moseying around  those trees-taking pictures, picnicking, smiling, sitting and watching the river flow by, soaking up sunshine, playing with the children, playing with the dog.  Everybody is happy in the blooms.  Sakura superpower is that its impossible to go there and not leave feeling wonderful.  What a nice gift.

Ohio Is My Home

A watercolour map idea has been percolating in my head for a while, so yesterday I made this study.  I'm trying to get at something but I'm not sure what it is yet.  Does anybody else work like that?  I can't think the idea through in my mind first then create it.  No not me.  Me, I have to do it wrong first before I can do it right.  Its a bit of a hassle going through life that way, but hey, at least I figured it out.  It drives the guys bonkers when I rearrange, I positively must put the couch "over there" to make absolute certain that it won't work before I can put it anywhere else.  The couch must be moved at least twice, not once, twice. Same with paintings, I have to paint it the wrong way first to see what does and doesn't work.

Some of this works.  Not all, but some.  It needs more landmarks fersure.  I'll keep playing with it and let you know what transpires.

*Fersure IS a word.

No time to keep working on landmarks, I had to take a little jaunt to the gallery and on the way back through I drove by those darn trees again.  They're just so stinkin' wonderful I had to stop.  The day was wild, Texas-sky-clouds and sun, wind gusting, shining rays,  cherry blossoms blowing and falling through the air like snow, and the people, the people, once again all happy and frolicking in their enchanted world under the blossoms.  I'm telling you, its there, its really really there this secret enchanted world where everything is good.  Walk in 15 feet, you'll see.  You must go in in order to experience the change from the reality of the outer world.

The-haunted-mental-health-center-"mansion"-up-on-the-hill backdrop makes it even that much more epic.

Bye enchanted world...gotta go make more art.