Author: -N-

Evolution

Several weeks ago I started an acrylic painting of a building at the end of a road. It was sort of painted in a traditional manner, meaning I was trying to represent reality. Truthfully, it bored the hell out of me, but I kept it as it was fairly decent in my opinion, but it did put me to sleep. 

Working with brighter colors of late has really been exciting for me as I feel much more of a connection to the colors I use than I do to subject matter. Subject matter can be anything – but colors express more to me and are more true to who I am (a magpie reincarnated as an old bat) than subject matter in general. So, I took the painting and painted over it. Below is the original.

This is a photograph I took and it is pretty crap (above) as there is a lot of weird stuff going on. I didn’t think it scanning it because of its size. This morning I scanned my current iteration of this painting.

I like this much better, but it is not quite done. I need to work on the road in the foreground as well as details of the building. More windows, fix windows, fewer windows? Create some focus at the end of the road? Fix the road? Cast some shadows – creating light and dark – across the road?

Many things to consider here. I am going to let it sit and ignore it awhile. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Acrylic, canvas, 18×24, scanned on an Epson V600.

A Late Winter Afternoon

When I lived in upstate New York, the winters were marvelous! Hardwood forests and pine trees all worked together to create a magical land of light and shadow, rolling snow banks, and winter streams frozen and thawed and frozen again. The skies, too, were amazing in their coldness of light that could reflect so brilliantly on the snowy landscape.

As an adult, snow as a place to live, work, and travel in no longer holds much allure – great to visit, but don’t ask me to wade through it, chisel ice off my windshield, or shovel it just to get out of my house. Still, the memories of those magical winter days in deep winter always hold a spot in my heart for their crisp and intense beauty.

10×14″ Arches Rough, watercolor limited palette of umbers, quin gold, ultramarine blue, and a touch of titanium white gouache.

After the Fall . . .

On September 12, 2023, we flew out of Los Angeles to Reykjavik, Iceland. We landed on the 13th. I fell on the 14th and broke my arm. On the 15th we were back in California. 

Diagnosis: comminuted spiral fracture of the left distal humerus. Luckily, it was not compound, meaning the skin was not broken along with the bones. My elbow was fine, too. No surgery needed.

The healthcare I got in Iceland was superb and the people were kind. I was totally doped up on morphine, but still conscious enough to talk my usual drivel and hold still for x-rays. I came back well packaged in a splint taped to my body. 

Now, several weeks and a few months later, I am out of my splint and winding up my occupational therapy. It is time to return to my former life in a more active form. It has not been easy. Many activities require a bit of different thought as well as practice.

Like driving . . .

Driving with a splinted arm was okay for very short distances. Once out of the splint, my arm was still weak and I needed to learn my limits – how far could I go? I stayed local, did my driving in neighborhoods, tried different roads from straight to very curvy, and found I could do all of them with patience. I didn’t drive on the freeway for about a month, and that has not been really comfortable – busy cars and multiple lanes require a bit of a different mindset. Luckily, when I have needed to drive any distance, such as to the Valley in Los Angeles County, the esposo has driven me. 

Now it is time to get it together. This means more and more normal activities, more movement and lifting. My arm is not fully healed – about 85% – so I need to continue to monitor fatigue and pain. In reality, after getting my arm set, I have never been in pain. Aches come and go, and overuse or misuse let me know as I don’t feel normal, just a bit of an ache in this or that position. 

Yesterday I did a bit of gardening, planting bulbs, digging holes, hauling garden soil. Tomorrow I will drive to a friend’s house along some mountain roads. Sewing and painting are there, as they don’t require heavy lifting, but they do require an element of dexterity which has been slowly returning. My left 5th knuckle still bothers me – no idea why – but that, too, is lessening. With use, everything warms up and I am good to go – and that is when I need to be careful!

So, life plods on, but it is time to get back to a more active life. And believe me, Adam and Eve had it worse.

Sweet Lavender

More gouache! Such a lovely, forgiving medium. Mistake? Dry, re-wet, blend some more, paint over. Can you really ask for more? The only problem with artist’s gouache is that it stays water soluble when you are done with the painting, but there are ways to seal it and make it waterproof. I think I will try that out on some gouache painting failures – like my snow scene of yesterday.

After getting lost in a drift on that snowy road of yesterday, off in my Learjet for warmer climes and roads easier to navigate. May as well time travel a bit, too, and move from winter to late summer.

Back to lavender fields! The ones I have been doing in acrylic are a bit gaudy, but so is lavender. Some lavender is light, some is so dark it rivals the deep blues of lobelia. I tried to strike a bit of a more subdued approach to a large amount of lavender, and I think it works pretty well.

Artist’s gouache on bristol paper; about 8×10.

Snowy Pines Road – Rectangular or Square?

Another afternoon, another bit of time, another gouache. Today, since we are in December, it is time to visit mythological scenes of snow and cold as today we had 70+ F, and tomorrow more of the same with the possibility of fires because of the winds.

I am also in a bit of a dilemma – are the trees too heavy on the left hand side of the painting, or should they be reduced a bit in volume? The only way to do this is to crop the picture, so I did it in Lightroom.

Or is the square one a better painting?

I am rather torn. So, a slide show to compare them side by side. Drag the <> as far as you can left to right if you want to see them . . .

Your thoughts??