A gift

...a Christmas gift that I painted for my beloved aunt. She (the figure, not my aunt) is acrylic on wood, and I believe about 15 inches tall, give or take. (My aunt, is of course, much taller than 15 inches.) I added a sawtooth hanger onto the back of the wooden cut-out so that she can be displayed as a wall hanging.

Latest moleskine

 

 Above: Latest painting in my moleskine.

Acrylic, ink, and colored pencil on paper

I have been attempting to focus on working quickly and a bit more loosely in my sketchbooks. (I spent about an hour and a half on this painting.) I recently received my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project 2012. I am toying with the idea of exploring a bird theme of some sort, within the framework of my official theme. I seem to procrastinate and lose my first choice of themes each year. However, I then realize that my second (or third) choice offers much more opportunity for growth, being that I have fewer preconceived notions and/or plans. I often have a phrase or vague idea running through my mind as I work, and just allow it to unfold as it will. "Sometimes home is not a place, but a person," ran through my mind while working on this piece. So, more than a theme, or animal, this piece in my moleskine was inspired by my own home- my husband.

Landfill Art Project- Associated Press Coverage

Ken Marquis, the founder of the Landfill Art Project, recently sent a couple of links concerning the media coverage of the Landfill Art Project. Thank you again Ken, both for the invitation to participate, and for keeping the participants so well-informed!

Associated Press video (below), as well as the article "Hubcaps as canvas: Artists turn junk into jewels".




 ...lastly, the blog post that I wrote regarding my submission to the project

Rochester show

 The Island Keeper, acrylic on canvas, 6"x6"

My submission to the 6x6 show in Rochester is shown above. The 6x6 show is intended to be anonymous until after the works are sold, which is why I only signed the back. Of course, half of the time I seem to photograph paintings before they are signed anyway, but the above image is actually from their website. We are in the midst of moving, but I am hoping to get better shots of Alfred & Isobel also, perhaps once I am no longer swimming in boxes and packing tape.

Alfred & Isobel

 Alfred & Isobel, acrylic on canvas, each is 11"x14"

Most of the paintings that I've completed in the past few years have been done for various shows and projects. I find participating extremely rewarding, but, at the same time, I realized that other than the work in my journals, I have not created a painting just for myself in quite a while. To rectify this, I recently completed two bird paintings for my living room. They were inspired by two of the paper dolls that I created for my contribution to The Sketchbook Project. I now, in a sense, have a little piece of that project in my home!