One New, One Updated

Fib's Open Mic
Acrylic
12x24

Did this from a sketch made during the Sketchcrawl last November (blogged here).  This place has such a cool feel.  There's always something going on; open mic, movie night, live music.  The painting over the table (which isn't really there) is of a carving I picked up at the JJ market in Bangkok.  I wanted to bring something home that carried a bit of the serenity I found tucked in between the chaos and the angry demonstrations in Thailand.  I love this little yogini.  I have another half-done painting that I think she may find herself in.  She sits beside my bed, and is one of the first things I see in the morning, reminding me to breath and relax into the day.

Speaking of yoga, I'm in a good yoga groove right now.  I signed up at www.myyogaonline.com and have been doing a different practice pretty much every day for about a month now.  It's great, because I don't have to leave Yogi at home, and there's no travel time, and at about $10 a month, it's pretty bargainous.   The videos are good quality, and there's a huge range to choose from.  If you're using streaming video you can use any of them for that $10.  You can download the ones you like for a fee, which I did with a few of them so I can practice outside when I'm camping.  The Jivamukti ones are my fave at the moment.

This other painting is one I did quite a while ago.  There were parts of it I liked, and parts that made me wince when I looked at it, so I just 'adjusted' a few things.  I'm much happier with it now.

Gun Barrel at Night

Acrylic

24x36

'Morning Honey' and 'Guitar Heads'

'Morning Honey'
Acrylic 12x12


I'm heading to Wells for the Toni Onley Artist's Project in 9 days!!  I'm so excited.  My plan for the project is to make a sketchbook, fill it with local scenes, and then rework them in the studio in acrylic.  I've been working on some at home in preparation.  I want to make some of the mistakes I'll make here in private - get them out of the way before I get there.

I'm never sure when these things are finished.  I just paint til I stop.  This is from this sketch I did on Sketchcrawl day in May.  I just realized that the scan cut off the big O on the tree in the upper left hand corner.  My 13x17" scanner, it turns out, is really an 11.5x15" scanner.  Those little rascals at Brother.  Oh well.

'Guitar Heads'
Acrylic 12x16


This one is from one of my 'Every Day In May' sketches.  Original here.  Border is cut off, but looks cool on the orig.

Dandelionfest

It's been a long time since I've had the acrylics out.  There's been an ongoing oil vs acrylic debate in my mind.  I've been invited to the Toni Onley Project in Wells this year, which is a very big thrill for me.  What happens there is a group of artists gather in this very cool little town that has more art galleries than people (almost true) and we work together, along with two mentor artists, to develop our artwork.  One of the artists ends up getting a show at the Penticton Gallery next year.  I didn't want to show up with my little bag of watercolour sketch toys.  It seemed to demand something a little more substantial.  But what?  The look and feel of oils is so lovely, but I'm not sure they're a fit with my 'paint it today, hang it tonight' approach.  In other words, I'm not that patient.  Also, I'm painting at home now, and I think oils would be too stinky in our little place.  And so I thought I'd give the acrylics another try and see if I like them.  I had mixed results using them in the past, but I had so much fun painting this!  I think one of the things that worked for me, which I didn't do before, is using a medium instead of water to paint with.  The other thing that worked was having sketched this same scene in crayolas recently.  They're so unavoidably vibrant, and I used that as a guide to keep things on the lively and clean side colour-wise.  I learned some things, did some things I'd do differently in the future, but ended up deciding that yes, acrylics are the way to go.  Good timing too since Opus is having their annual inventory blow-out right now.  I took the van up there and loaded up: canvi, paints, palette, gel mediums, modeling paste, and a mitt full of brushes.  Wa-hoo!