The Sky in a River

This piece is done with heavy body acrylics on canvas panel.
The more I work with heavy body paint, the more I like it. I've worked on it for the past few months, and painted and repainted the grasses on the right. Oddly enough, the grass was the toughest to depict. There is an insect in plain view. Can you find it?

This image is from within me, and it was done to depict the sky from within the river. I fell in love with the idea that the sky can be shown from the bottom of an image, and have it still make sense to the mind's eye.

This one was a labor of love; specifically painted for my best friend. I have yet to turn it over to him because he lives far away from me. I've wanted him to see it for months, and it occurred to me that this is the best way to let him see it and to get opinions from you about it. Bobby, I hope you like it !

Please leave a comment. Did you find the grasshopper?

Pastel Callas for Amanda

A colleague of mine works with grids and patterns to create some of the most beautiful knitted afghans I have had the pleasure to see. Amanda lays out all of her own patterns; grids them, and then knits them into reality. She truly is an artist in her own right.

This piece wss done at her request. Amanda appreciates the flower so much she used them in her wedding bouquet. I wonder if she knows that the Calla Lily was the flower that the early Romans used to mark the passage of the winter solstice. The Romans planted the Calla Lily just inside the portal to their homes, timing it to bloom for winter solstice and giving the effect of bringing the light indoors during the darkest days of the year. The greater the display of Calla Lilies usually meant the wealthier the resident that lived there. The Romans valued them so much that they often decorated the edges of the bloom with filaments of gold. The Calla Lilies of Roman times were said to be much larger than today’s varieties, and often were as tall as seven feet!

This piece is done on coarse 80 grit, black sand paper with soft General's Pastels. It was a lot of fun to do, but when I transported it to Amanda at work I learned that the pigment wouldn't hold to the paper as I had anticipated; in spite of the fixative I applied. In my mind, the pigment had more crevices to hold onto, but I was sooo very wrong. I have started an acrylic version of this piece, but had to post it to treat it as a great learning experience.

Thank you for stopping in. Please feel free to leave your story in a comment.