Finished two set-asides and started an otter
What a fun evening at Kat's studio! Kat sent out an email yesterday or the day before that it was First Friday at her studio -- come on by! I've been off acrylics for months and busy with work and frazzled with work details coming up. Perfect night for me! I brought my bag of stuff and a couple of unfinished unhappy paintings and a few boards.
I'm not sure what has happened to me since I last held a brush with acrylic paint but tonight I felt fearless and confident and I wasn't worried about ruining anything. Maybe because they were already not so good in my mind that I couldn't make them worse. Whatever, I had a fun finishing one and improving another.
I finished a painting I started in the summer of Pine Creek, between Maiden Rock and Stockholm Wisconsin. When I had worked on it earlier I had the spaces and shapes but the colors were dull and lifeless and the sky was dull and lifeless. I brightened it all up, didn't worry about the fine details, and added the pink bits. See the June 28, 2018 blog post to see the original plain, dull, and boring version!
Next, I finished a painting I started when I was up at Maplewood State Park in May for my birthday weekend camping trip. I had painted on a rough cedar board that was supposed to be for grilling salmon but I haven't grilled salmon on a board in about 10 years (which means it has been 15 years). I was going to burn the board in my campfire but decided to paint on it instead. I had previously painted in the vegetation in the very foreground but Kat had suggested to leave it out and focus on the reflections. I remember that day so well because it was vividly, blindingly blue in the sky and reflected on the water. I sat squinting in my little chair at this spot, had a beer and my cheese and pickle sandwich lunch and painted. No bugs and a perfect May day.
So I'm done with my finishing of randomly undone paintings and Kat says, "paint an otter!" I don't know otters and Kat is an otter-goddess when it comes to painting them. She gave me a photo and said, "just paint the otter!" so I did. I drew in the outline and features and level of the water and a few other bits. It was hard to paint a thing that is moving in the water. Moving creature. Water. Make it look like a otter and not a walrus or a dog. I could fix the eye a bit but from where I sit now and look at it above my windows on the moulding, it' looks pretty good for my first otter! He does look like he's wearing an eye patch on the one eye and I'll fix that with a bit of gesso and paint. You can't really see the paw moving in the water and the body is a bit chubbier than normal but it does look like an otter in the water if you squint a bit.
A fun fun night! Great to see Robin and meet her friend and meet new people. My brain emptied and it was me and the brush and a blobs of paint. I look at the paintings I've kept and not gesso'd over and I think about why I've kept them. Oddly, I still have kept and like the 10 minute oranges from the first 2 classes from Kat. I've painted over most of the other paintings from class that were on boards.
I think I won't paint over these. Happy happy happy with these!
I'm not sure what has happened to me since I last held a brush with acrylic paint but tonight I felt fearless and confident and I wasn't worried about ruining anything. Maybe because they were already not so good in my mind that I couldn't make them worse. Whatever, I had a fun finishing one and improving another.
I finished a painting I started in the summer of Pine Creek, between Maiden Rock and Stockholm Wisconsin. When I had worked on it earlier I had the spaces and shapes but the colors were dull and lifeless and the sky was dull and lifeless. I brightened it all up, didn't worry about the fine details, and added the pink bits. See the June 28, 2018 blog post to see the original plain, dull, and boring version!
Next, I finished a painting I started when I was up at Maplewood State Park in May for my birthday weekend camping trip. I had painted on a rough cedar board that was supposed to be for grilling salmon but I haven't grilled salmon on a board in about 10 years (which means it has been 15 years). I was going to burn the board in my campfire but decided to paint on it instead. I had previously painted in the vegetation in the very foreground but Kat had suggested to leave it out and focus on the reflections. I remember that day so well because it was vividly, blindingly blue in the sky and reflected on the water. I sat squinting in my little chair at this spot, had a beer and my cheese and pickle sandwich lunch and painted. No bugs and a perfect May day.
A fun fun night! Great to see Robin and meet her friend and meet new people. My brain emptied and it was me and the brush and a blobs of paint. I look at the paintings I've kept and not gesso'd over and I think about why I've kept them. Oddly, I still have kept and like the 10 minute oranges from the first 2 classes from Kat. I've painted over most of the other paintings from class that were on boards.
I think I won't paint over these. Happy happy happy with these!
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