Author: -N-

Leaf Flight

I started a weekly Friday afternoon watercolor class yesterday.  The assignment was based on a negative painting by Rick Surowicz, who does amazing work.  You can find him on YouTube and on Facebook.  This is the video from which this painting is a derivative.

A few things . . . first, I didn’t have any frisket / masking fluid in class.  I had barely anything!  All my stuff – most of my stuff – is still packed up from the house repairs.  I ransacked a bit and found some things.  Like tape – so I used tape to mask off some areas inside the painting.  Second, I used student-grade paper, and some of the paper’s surface came off when I removed the tape.  I think you can see the areas if you look closely.

The way I see it, the whole point of this exercise is to work on negative painting.  Exact replication of Surowicz’s painting is not the point – the point is to learn from it.  I struggle with negative painting, but learning to just let go of things when I paint and let things happen, while hard, is something I am finally beginning to do.  To quote the Beatles, “let it be, let it be”!

The painting was, to a point, successful.  I did some negative painting.  I wanted to work with complementary colors and washes, but try to control a bit, such as the leaf shapes, here and there.

Now that it is done, the real question is which end is up?  Click on the first image to move through all four versions.

I think I like this one the best (fourth in the series).  It’s below.  Maybe it expresses the wind and whirling leaves and branches and twigs.

 

Poppies

The studio is finally sort of back together.  It was torn apart for flooring installation.  Putting it back is slow – I didn’t realize how much stuff I had packed away in it, and how little I want to put back into it other than painting supplies, photography equipment, and books.  It’s not gonna be easy.

So what!  When in doubt, paint!  And poppies are the best in a California spring!

Floors, Hidden Vanities, Studio, Office, Wrist & Finger

Okay, the shower is tiled, but now is covered in plastic sheeting, protected by the painter from the paint. Hidden but not forgotten as its door arrives Friday!

But what else has been happening? We now have floors. Not rugs. Not hardwood. Vinyl, 20mm thick, looks like wood and designed for dogs. You read that right: dogs. The flooring has textures so that dogs have traction and don’t go flying down the hallway. It’s actually quite nice. It feels good underfoot.

And, the vanities have arrived, but until the painter is done, they remain covered and mysterious. They need to be installed before the template for the countertops can be made, and then installed.

My studio and J’s office are beginning to become usable again. Funny how daily habits, when upset, are so nice to take up again. I like reading the news and drinking my coffee in the morning, and perusing other blogs. My cameras are back on the shelves – not all of them, but a lot of them – and I used my Nikon Df here, with the 85mm f1.8, to take some photos. I also used some film cameras outdoors … the drafting table is in place, and paints and paper and brushes are reappearing.

And, my wrist and finger are mending very well, and I am out of the finger splint altogether, but wear the wrist splint at night or when my wrist feels tires or sore. Hard to believe I went flying over Smudge (dog) 4 weeks ago.

Home, Sweet Home!