“Suspended in Animation”…progression photo update

I wanted to share some of the progress I am making on my latest oil painting on canvas “Suspended in Animation”. I have been working on this for over a month. I like the way it is coming along although it still has a long way to go…problem is….I just don’t know which way to go from here. I do love the palette that I chose. It is even more vibrant in person. Its dimensions are 15 x 30 inches.

Initially, I had started an acrylic painting of a forest. This was my first attempt at using acrylic and it just wasn’t working for me……so the acrylic base provided a nice underpainting. I then painted over it in oils that were pale, pale cobalt blue and a fleshy pink. The upper colors that you see now are actually 3-4 different layers of oils. I have been using Liquin as my medium so it has a nice, glossy finish to it thus far.

Stay tuned for more! Who knows, the next time you see it, it very well may be unrecognizable.

Have a wonderful weekend!

k i m b y

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Blue Danube….the thing is….

The thing is,

to love life, to love it even 

when you have no stomach for it

and everything you’ve held dear

crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,

your throat filled with the silt of it.

When grief sits with you, its tropical heat 

thickening the air, heavy as water

more fit for gills than lungs;

when grief weights you like your own flesh,

only more of it, an obesity of grief,

you think, How can a body withstand this?

Then you hold life like a face

between your palms, a plain face…

no charming smile, no violet eyes;

and you say, yes, I will take you,

I will love you…..again.

-Ellen Bass

“Birds Eye View” progression photos…

Hello there and a very happy Thursday to you.  The weekend is almost here!  Yippee!!!

I finished a painting that I happen to love this week.  I am in love with the palette and I also love all of the different ‘things’ I can see in this finished abstract piece.  This painting was done in oils.  It was a very fulfilling piece because over the last month or so I have been working primarily in acrylics.  If you follow my blog, you will know that using acrylic paint is a totally new medium to me.  Initially, I hated them; however, once I hung in there and continued to push my boundaries by exploring this incredibly versatile medium I was pleasantly surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed them.  I must be honest and state that my true love is (and will probably always be) oils.  They are so vibrant, so luscious, so forgiving (sometimes), and they allow you to re-work an area and blend colors so well….you just have to know what you are doing in order not to muddy the colors (I am still learning this lesson).  This is why I had so much fun with this particular painting….I got back to using oils for the first time in awhile.

The painting is called “Birds Eye View”.  I titled it this because this painting was a totally abstract expressionistic piece.  No pre-planning was done and everything that you see came from an emotional place.  During the process of painting this piece, one of the first things I painted resembled a bird and a large eye (see initial photos below).  I liked where it was going from its inception.  After I finished the piece, I started noticing many eyes and faces within the painting.  A dear friend of mine also saw the same…as well as some additional surprises that my eyes didn’t initially pick up.  It seems to be a repetitive theme in many of my abstract pieces:  eyes and faces.  These items are created totally intuitively, not purposefully.

Anyway, what follows are some of the progression photos.  I hope you enjoy this little journey.  Have a wonderful weekend and take good care of each other.

Warmly,

k  i  m  b  y

I Feel It…

 

 

 

 

 

I hold it true, whate’er befall;

I feel it, when I sorrow most;

‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.

-Alfred Lord Tennyson