Monday, October 25, 2010

Back to Work!

Sometimes you need a vacation in order to appreciate what you do for a living again. This vacation refreshes you and enables you to go back to work with renewed vigor. Now it doesn't actually matter whether or not you actually went somewhere or if you stayed at home (although I always prefer actually getting away...perhaps someplace sunny, with a beach). The point is to have a vacation from  your work, which is what I did for the past two weeks.

Week one was spent at home catching up on some sleep and general resting. It was a busy three day Open Studios and I needed the recovery time. Week two I took an "art vacation". I purposely stayed away from what I normally paint in the studio and spent a week just "playing". I worked on some "texture" pieces using a bunch of methods I hadn't used in a long time. It was a fun time of not worrying about anything other than just playing with different materials and seeing what they could do.

But now it's Monday and I am all revved up and ready to start on two new large paintings! The time away has made me appreciate what I do and how I paint. I am excited to start the next two pieces and see how they turn out. Here are the images that I will be working with this week:
Even though I told myself I was not going to paint anymore children, I couldn't resist this picture! That kid on the right is HILARIOUS, with his hand grabbing his crotch area while his little brother shoots him with one of those popping noise maker "thingys". I don't normally paint backgrounds either but I think it's important to get the teepee in the painting. I've already drawn this out and I think it's a strong composition. It will be a 30" x 30" painting when it's finished.

This is a turtle race. If you look closely you can see turtles in their hands with numbered flags on suction cups that attach to the animal's shell. Once again, a pretty funny picture. In order to make it work compositionally on my 30" x 40" panel, I separated the girls. The first three on the left are still standing together but the girl on the far right is separated from the rest and has a bit more space between her and the other competitors. It works this way because it gives the painting more white space and "rest", visually.

I will be sure to post the progress of these two paintings as I work on them.

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