Sunday News

I have news this fine rainy and chilly Sunday.  I saw on my calendar last week a notation about BA Museum on June 1.  Could not remember exactly what it was but thought it was a show.  Linda and I were supposed to have a two person show over two years ago at the Broken Arrow Museum but Covid stopped it from happening.  Then last July or so the director contacted me about a show in September but again I was hesitant because of the pandemic and because I could not even think about it with my hip pain and needing to have the surgery.  So I put it off until this June.  I forgot about it.  Funny thing is I got an email from the director asking me if we were still on for the June show!!!  Ah-ha, there it was the nudge to the memory.  I told Linda about it and she said, "well alrighty then!"  We are on and painting up a storm.  I originally talked to the director about doing a self-portrait theme and am still on that path but I will add florals and landscapes to the mix.  We meet with her in a couple of weeks to get a sense of the space and how many paintings we can actually have.  That may nix a few of my larger self portraits as I really want to showcase the other stuff, and possibly sell some.  No one is going to buy my self-portrait stuff but it's fun to show off.  Plus it was a fantastic challenge for me.

I will post here later the dates exactly and the opening date we will have.  I hope everyone in the vicinity will be able to come out and check out our work.  Linda is of course doing a lot of cowboy stuff as it is Broken Arrow and she paints to the audience alot, I paint for myself.

Embracing the Gray

I am FINALLY done.  I finished it this afternoon after another 4-1/2 hours spent.  I am happy with it and plan on entering it in the Portrait Society something that is coming up.

"Carla - Embracing the Gray"

18x24 oil on linen

I Want My Life Back

Good morning all.  I guess life is going to continue to be just plain weird with this Covid thing.  I'm really over it but it's not over with us as humans.  Kind of a boring life around here.  I get up, have my coffee, breakfast, check my emails, watch a few videos on YouTube, go to work or the work-studio.  Pay bills, pay Daddy's bills, back home for a power nap, fix dinner, watch TV, play a little online gin, read a bit, then to bed to wake up the next morning and start ALL OVER AGAIN!  

At least I do have the studio to go to and paint.  That has been a lifesaver for sure.  These little flowers appeared on my canvas last week.  I'd started them while staying at home and wasn't really sure they would amount to anything, but they did and I am so happy.  

We've still not seen my mother-in-law yet, although the oldest brother-in-law did visit her with mask on and outside. Now we hear that 12 of the staff there have tested positive.  THAT IS SCARY for her and for us for her!  Really, if the young and the other IDIOTS would wear a mask maybe we could get this thing at bay and could go on with life, sort of as usual.  I'm still trying not to watch too much news or the Facebook news (I think that is a bit skewed.)  I guess I choose to stay a bit naive about it all.  As long as I can still order my stuff from the grocery stores, Amazon, etc., then I'm perfectly happy doing what I am doing.  I just want to get through the year to next summer when we officially RETIRE!!!!!  

Also in the studio I decided to go back to the self portrait stuff.

I keep looking at what I've done and it just makes me crazy that I may have messed it up.  I've go so many drawn on canvas and ready to paint but I'm just blocked and afraid to carry on. 

I started this one and my studio partner, Linda, who is a portrait queen said you should NEVER use burnt umber in portraits!  Well, crap.  That stopped my in my tracks as that is exactly what I did.  I am NOT mad at her for helping me, she critiqued my work as I critique hers.  That is what we do for each other and it is INVALUABLE for help in progressing forward in our art journey.  

So, I put it aside for months just staring at it and contemplating what to do, how to do it.  Then I remembered a technique called the Zorn Palette.  It utilizes only four colors:  titanium white, black, cadmium red light, and yellow ochre.  You can get TONS of different colors using only these four colors.  Yesterday I got them out and played with the palette.  EUREKA!  I am so very pleased that it is coming together, finally.  I really want to go back to the studio today but Linda will be there and I have little Snicklefritz with me.  Linda is afraid of being around other people right now or exposing Snicklefritz to anything.  She is teaching students and is around people and I understand that.  I would keep Snicklefritz in my rooms only but still not sure I want to do it.  So probably will opt to stay home.  I'm just thrilled I'm making headway to tackle my problem here.  Maybe I will get to finally finish all those paintings for a show next year.  Oh, and on that note we WERE going to have a show at the Broken Arrow Museum but with the virus we decided to cancel it.  No sense in having an art show when NO ONE CAN COME TO IT!  

Painting In The New Year

Happy New Year...well, this new year it already flying by as it is the 11th of January.  I've been trying to play catch up with work and painting.  My studio mate and I have a show next September and I want to get several of the self-portraits done.  I've got them drawn but have been very hesitant to apply paint.  But this week I decided to conquer the fear and just do it.  So far I am please with the beginning of block-in on this one.  Skin color is so tricky!  

I did finish this one of Moss Mountain Farm.  I've painted it before in a very small version and it sold very quickly but I wanted to paint it bigger.  I'm happy with it. 

On a quick note this Saturday morning...BRRRRR...winter has blown in and of course our furnace is on the fritz.  Of course my do-it-yourself hubby is not inclined to call anyone but wants to tackle it himself.  Righhhhht...I'm cold and thank goodness most of the day I will be moving and grooving with straightening up the guest bedrooms from our company and dismantling Christmas and stowing it away, so I may even break a sweat.  Lots of blankets this evening and I should survive.  My parakeet on the other hand I will move to the bedroom area where we have a split system to keep him warm.

Sad note is that The Hubby lost two cousins yesterday.  They had both been battling cancer.  

Sketching

I've been watching on YouTube a series called "Portrait Artist of the Year," out of Britain.  Apparently, it began in 2013 with some lapses in the years.  I believe there are 2013, 14, 17 and 18 and there is a series on landscapes that I will look into eventually.  Goodness, I'm obsessed yet again on something to watch.  First it was the British baking show and now the portrait series.  I've devoured 2017 season and part of 18 then will go back to 13 and 14, eventually.   What this has done is to make me obsessive for portraits, in particular self portraits.  

A couple of weekends ago I sat out on the screened porch at the cabin and sketched this lovely, it was incredibly inspiring and fun.   

Then this past weekend we stayed in town and I pretty much stayed out on the porch (not screened, damned mosquito's) from Friday afternoon till Sunday evening.  It was hot but honestly I go outside to get warm this time of year and LOVE IT!  I brought home from the studio my drawing supplies and set up shop, so to speak at the table, sketched and read an entire 350 page book.  MY kind of weekend.  

This sketching and self portrait videos has brought me to an idea that I think I want to try.  Can't seem to get a flower painted lately so portraits it is, self portraits. 

I've gone through my life in photos and came up with a few that I want to capture, and maybe make it a self portrait show somewhere, "The Evolution of Carla."    I sketched one of me crying but can't find it on my phone and it's at the studio but I've sketched the one below of probably my first selfie, so to speak.  It's of the baby me in my daddy's arms.  I love this photo and will work on it to make it better.  Then today, after scraping off some flowers I've been working on, I had that uncontrollable itch for the selfie thing.  The above photo I can almost give you a roundabout date of July of  2007.  The year before, 2006, was the hardest year of my life.  We became empty-nesters, we moved, I lost my best friend, lost my mother, our dog died and I turned 50, all within 7 months.  So, that photo I took of myself at Lake Austin Spa.  I had decided that it was time, that I had dreamed of going there and I made it happen.  Plus, I so needed a break because I was not in a happy place in my mind.  There was too much loss and I needed a place to go away and try and heal.  So, that photo represents me trying to come out of a dark place.  It would take a couple more years after that, with a bit of therapy to finally, FINALLY find my happy again, and that happy place is creating, drawing and painting.  

It has been 10 years now since I started in this crazy world of creating images.  I really had no idea that I would take my new endeavor down this path that I have but I would not change a thing.  My next blog post, I hope to delve into something that has been rolling around in my head about dreams, wishes, goals in life...you know in my head stuff.  Stay tuned.