seed

Sometimes Illustration Friday posts a theme that is so appropriate it's laughable. How do I choose? I have reworked this week's theme so many times over the past couple of years that I have dozens of images to choose from (and no desire to do another after having done two this week already). So I compromised.

note - these are all cropped from larger works

inspiration

Here's one of the places I get my inspiration these days (the houses, not the tulips ~ I just threw those in for decoration).




Here's another source of inspiration. The calluses are building!

the latest

Busy week this week: I'm finishing up some work, tying up loose ends and packing for shipping. After I get this load off to the new gallery I can return to some important gigs, i.e. commissions.

But I have a few links to share before I return to the trenches. The first one totally intrigues me because I have seen articles about wool felting in places like Etsy and craft blogs, but being particularly stunted in my crafts growth, have no idea what it is, really. But if this is it, then I'm in!

More cute fuzzies here. These are all really creative uses of mainstream materials. Sometimes traditional media, like, say, crayons, can actually be the artwork. I also like it when prosaic objects like Lego or annuals/yearbooks are the inspiration for something totally unexpected.

Finally, I was really amused by Ellen and Melody's blast from the past when they showed off their '80s hair yesterday. I'm too chicken to post it on my blog, but if you take a look here, you, too, can be wowed by my Big Hair (and read the 'back story'). Feel free to make this into a meme-for-the-middle-aged and then let us know!

scarab

I'll be putting these two guys, framed, in my online shop tomorrow, but now I have a very important Saturday night date with a DVD player.

earth art

All day long I've wanted to post about Earth Day, but first I needed to paint something for it, and that didn't happen until after dinner! As a result, Earth Day is over almost everywhere. Here at GMT-8 we still have a couple hours left. Just made it.

I've always been convinced that pussywillows are at least 25% animal. This is tiny (there's only so much time left in the day after dinner after all), only 6" x 6", and painting the pussywillows themselves were a doddle, but blending the background on these hard little panels is a pain in the arse because the (acrylic) paint dries so fast on wood. This gradation blending right on the support is something I did back in the day when I painted in oils -- and it worked -- and I've never been able to give it up. D'you think there's a 12-step program for that?

But, about Earth Day and blogging. Here's a blog that is an inspiration, and then there's Angela, urban apartment dweller, making a concerted effort to eat locally-produced food as much as possible.

Finally, who produces finer art than the earth herself? Check out her handiwork here and here.

primitive

I'm late for most things, so after a few lates for Illustration Friday I'm still slightly ahead of the (my) curve.

Primitive is a good one for me, considering how often I like to introduce primitive elements into my work. But in art it's a bit of a misnomer. Picasso's was the least primitive art using the most primitive elements.

inclement weather

Stormy Relations 12" x 24"

Let me begin by saying that I'm pretty sure the average artist as tortured soul is a myth, and that there are equally as many tortured taxi drivers and accountants. (If I was an accountant I know I would be.) That said, I certainly seem to field more than my fair share of angst. There seem to be major cycles, usually punctuated by minor skirmishes, but for the most part I think my work refects my sunnier moods. Maybe that's a mistake. It's like I'm trying to create an up cycle by sheer force of will and sometimes I just need to ride the down cycles. Maybe, if I accept myself a little more, apply a little more zen, I'll actually learn something.

This painting has been working its way out of me for a couple of weeks now. I have balked every step of the way and it has not been a pleasure. It started life as a pleasant spring thing, painted to exist alongside my other cottage paintings: a couple of cheerful houses in an old neighbourhood, comfortable in their skins and their companionship. Yeah, right. I finally accepted it for what it is and finished it yesterday in the turbulent grey tones of a spring storm on the west coast. Even then, I tried to cheer it up a little, probably because I felt that I needed the cheering up, with tulips and birdies and blossoms and the like. The only thing missing is fluffy kitties peering through the curtains. I haven't varnished it yet, so I'm tempted now to go back and paint out my sad attempts at positive thinking and really pour on the storm clouds and create some wind, so to speak. But then it occurred to me that this innocuous-looking painting is a perfect reflection of what I'm up against right now: a failed attempt at painting a happy face on a grizzly bear. A reflection of that struggle between yin and yang. Since it's not the kind of artwork most people will want for their dining room (too gloomy) or their wood-panelled study (too cheerful) maybe I need to keep it around as a reminder that I can't control everything.