Art, Poetry and Life

Denise: Thanks. She was born with big, beautiful, dark eyes. Just her stare told me exactly what she was thinking.

Darko: This style would be 'expressionistic'. I used to draw the image first, then paint it. Now, I draw with the paint brush and stay loose with the brush strokes.

Lea: Thank you.

Clance: Thank you.

Ze: Thank you and, yes, I'll show more paintings. Am in the process of photographing them.

WeatherLawyer: Only my daughter's face.

Andy: 5 stars? Thank you.

Loku: Thank you. Bosch's most famous triptych painted hundreds of years ago is astounding. Edward Piercy had a blog post about war. The first pic Ed posted was part of Bosch's tryptich depicting war. Then Ed had photos of WWII and others about the current wars.

Angeliki: Thanks. Yes, I do love that gesso.

Ze: I've still got my 35 yr. old Pentax K1000. So, it will be a few days before I get all 24 exposures taken, then developed. Almost bought a digital (a Fuji something) around Christmas. It was on sale for $199. It is a little larger than the tiny digitals and, for me, easier to hold on too. Those tiny ones (like cell phones) would go flying out of my hands for sure.

Andy: Ok, I'll take em!

Yes. In the upper left corner is what Ed showed on his post about war.

Isn't Picasso's Guernica in Museo del Prado as well?

These are two paintings I would travel to Madrid specifically to see in person.

I must leave for work and will be gone for a few hours.

WeatherLawyer: I will not acknowledge the other things/faces I see in it. There are times when painting in this expressive way, paint strokes are all over the place. If I'm in a particular mood, I often start seeing other things in the painting, then it changes to a whole other genre and is no longer a portrait.

Many of my paintings do this and, if I let them, they become something I don't want. That's when I stop. Other times, however, I keep going. That is when they become paintings that freak people out and they wonder what I'm on. I have only photographed about 1/4 of my paintings and the freaky ones are not among them.

However, there is this drawing:

http://my.opera.com/PainterWoman/blog/the-centaur-and-the-angels-escape-from-hell

where I let go with my mind and saw things no one else could and went to another realm. Some people outside of Opera were freaked out by it. There is another in this style which I may never photograph...but maybe I'll burn it.

Graham: Thanks. She was giving me a very intense look when I took the photo and I was hoping I captured the same look in the painting.

I don't really fear it. It's just that this portrait I wanted to keep free of gargoyles. If I paint someone other than my children, I'll let the demons I see in them come out.

Yeah, she was giving me that 'why are you taking my picture look'! That's my girl!

Thank you very much Cynthia.

Thanks Ed. Funny but she asked me the same thing about the nose ring. No she doesn't have one. I added the blue at the end to highlight some things and had intended to come back and tone it down on the nose. I guess I forgot. Why I put it there, I'm not sure. Must have been one of those artist 'ethereal' moments.

Thanks Isabel. That's terrific that you got an invitation! The last time I exhibited was at what I thought was a popular coffee house. It was for one day only. I keep saying I'm never going to do those again because they are a lot of work to set up, hang around for anywhere from 4 to 6 hours, then take down and load all back into my car. Plus, that day it was 104 F. There was no foot traffic at all...maybe six people...and not one artist sold anything. I was thoroughly exhausted. We were all grumbling that we'd never do it again...but then we do. It's sort of a never ending quest.

I've had a few paintings be in shows where it stayed up for a month. There are larger, special event venues in Scottsdale, Arizona but it is very expensive to have a booth...anywhere from $300 to $1000 or more.
Except for my printmaking, most of my work is 3ft x 4ft so it'd be impossible to fit in a small booth at any of the special event venues Scottsdale has. Plus Arizona is all about cowboys, indians, desert landscapes, sunsets and cactus. That's what sells here. Nothing else unless you hire a great art marketer to get your work all over the U. S.

Scottsdale is also the place for hundreds of galleries. I was in one gallery about 12 years ago. Now you have to have all your work on a cd. They no longer accept you coming in with a portfolio.

I also think Arizona is overpopulated with artists of all genres. IMO. Sometimes the work I see I think is just awful or boring and I wonder how these artists got represented. I think you have to be pushy and I am not and never will be.

Hi ya Jean. Thank you. I'm glad you popped by!

Thanks Loku.

Thanks Jill.

Thanks Amir. It's not so hard to work with acrylics anymore. I've gotten used to it. I just have to be prepared to work fast.

WL, so far, all the tubes and jars of acrylic paint I have are holding up but you have to use them up faster than w/ oil paint, say, within two to five years. I have found a few that have hardened completely if they've been unused for several years. Especially, if the cap hasn't been put back on tightly. I have a tendency to not put lids on tight because they are too darn hard to open. If the tube is new, never been opened and has been sitting in my art bin for five years, they are fine. Not so with the partially used ones.

I guess I'll never know about the acrylic paintings. I don't remember exactly when I started using them....fifteen years ago maybe. Whoever has my paintings in 2050 will find out.

I've no idea either about PVAs.