Lingering in the Shadows

"Lingering in the Shadows"

mixed media

on 11 x 14 wrapped canvas

I really don't know where the time has gone.  When I allow myself to dwell in the creative right side of my brain, I become a different person, it seems.  Time means little to me, and I become very absent-minded.  My mind is focused only on colors and shapes and ideas, not the minutiae of life.

I've been lingering in the shadows of creativity and memory and hope.

It's a welcome change for me, since I've spent so much of my life forcing myself to be almost completely left-brained.  

Now I'm not forcing anything anymore, and look what happens.

I wish you could see and feel the rich colors and complex textures of this painting!  I've left the top photo larger, so if you click on it you can get an idea of what I mean.

I don't know if I prefer it horizontal or vertical.

What do you think?

This time I started by covering the canvas with plaster cloth, an idea I adapted from the gorgeous art two incredibly talented blogger friends are creating.  Lynne Hoppe paints the most amazing faces on her own combination of muslin and plaster cloth.  You can see an example here.  And Annie Coe has been using Venetian plaster in her paintings to create fabulous textures, an example of which is here.

Armed with their inspiration, I decided to use plaster cloth instead of modeling paste this time.  I just can't get enough of experimenting with colors and textures.

(detail)

I really like the grainy texture which remained in many places, and the ridges formed by manipulating the cloth.  Many glazes of acrylic paint were added, and I was happy to discover that you can see previous washes of color peeking through the colors which were added later. In some place, the paint has the appearance of watercolor washes, and in others it looks like encaustic.  I crackled a few spots, too, just to see what would happen.

Another canvas is almost ready for some more experiments.  But I do plan to leave the comfort of the shadows long enough to travel through Blogland to visit a few of my favorite places during the next week.  

I know I've been terribly slow about getting back to all the wonderful people who have left me comments and e-mails during the last few weeks.  I really appreciate hearing from you, and I'm so grateful for your patience and understanding.

Earth Day and Stuff

"One of the first conditions of happiness

is that the link

between Man and Nature

shall not be broken."

~ Leo Tolstoy

 Tomorrow is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.  That first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, about 20 million people around the US united to champion the basic human right to a clean and healthy environment.  This year, nearly 1 billion people around the world are expected to participate in Earth Day activities.

So Happy Earth Day, everybody!  Let's try to make every day an Earth Day.

If you are a consumer (and we all are, aren't we?), I found an interesting video you should watch.  It's only 21 minutes long, very fast-paced, informative and entertaining.

It's called "The Story of Stuff" and you can find it on youtube at :

http://www.youtube.com/storyofstuffproject#p/a/u/2/9GorqroigqM

You can also find out more about where most of our stuff comes from, as well as where it ends up, from "the story of stuff" website:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

I recently heard of a book you might be interested in, too.  It's "Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough Planet" by Bill McKibben.  Bill McKibben is a well-known environmentalist and author, and in this book he provides warnings and hope for our future and the future of our changing planet.  You can find his book at :

http://www.amazon.com/Eaarth-Making-Life-Tough-Planet/dp/0805090568

or visit his website for more information about this book, as well as his other books and articles:

http://www.billmckibben.com/index.html

"Trust in Nature,

in what is simple in Nature, 

in the small Things

that hardly anyone sees 

and that can so suddenly become huge,

immeasurable . . .

then everything will become easier for you,

more coherent

and somehow more reconciling,

not in your conscious mind perhaps,

which stays behind,

astonished,

but in your innermost awareness,

awakeness,

and knowledge."

~Rainer Maria Rilke

Not Quite Wordless/ Not Quite Wednesday - Home

"Only when the last tree has died,

and the last river has been poisoned,

and the last fish has been caught,

will we realize we cannot eat money."

~ Cree Proverb

 

"There is hope

if people will begin to awaken 

that spiritual part of themselves,

that heartfelt knowledge

that we are caretakers

of this planet."

~Brooke Medicine Eagle

Two new paintings

 "Trilliums"

acrylic

on 8 x 10 canvas board

SOLD

I feel so much better because I finally had the opportunity to finish the two paintings I started last week!

I've always loved flowers, and two of my favorite flowers bloom in May here in Wisconsin.  Trilliums are wild flowers that grow in shady woodlands.  They are called trilliums because the flowers have three petals and three leaves.

"Bleeding Hearts"

acrylic

on 8 x 10 canvas board

SOLD

For years I had a bleeding heart plant that bloomed briefly each Spring, but it hasn't come up this year.  I'm glad I took pictures of these beautiful flowers last year, because I had a wonderful reference photo to use for this painting.

This is the first time I've painted flowers in acrylic.  Several years ago I went through a brief phase where I painted flowers in watercolor at a friend's request. I think I might have to try that again, too, because I found the watercolors easier to work with.

It's amazing how much better I feel when I can create something.  Like these paintings, for example.  It's as if they were just bursting to get outside of me.  I was so uneasy until I could finally work on them, and eventually finish them.

"You need chaos in your soul 

to give birth to a dancing star."
~ Nietzsche

Wordless Wednesday - In my right brain

image from wired.com

(Thank you all so much for your wonderful, lovely, kind and welcomed comments on my recent posts!  Sometimes I focus on what I don't have, rather than all that I do have.  This kind of thinking gets in my way and is very unproductive.  It's just a bump in the road.  I'll be back in my right brain again very soon.  Thanks for your support!)

Quiet/Time

I've been in a strange mood lately.  Not one to divulge every little detail of my life on my blog, I find I have very little to say here lately.  Even commenting on the many other wonderful blogs I visit has been difficult recently.  I want to say something worth reading, but lately meaningful and interesting words seem to be just outside my grasp.  I write something and delete it.  Blah-blah-blah.

Like I wrote in the title of my last post, I'm in a constant state of longing.

I'm so tired, in so many ways.  Frustrated, too.

For weeks now, I've been craving quiet and sleep, and time and space.  Especially time and space to be creative in ways that have nothing to do with anyone else's needs. 

Ah, well, I don't have much patience for whining, so I'll stop before I start.

I'm working on two new paintings, much more realistic ones this time, so it's taking some time to get them to a point where I'll be satisfied with them. There was no space to spread out and work on them over the weekend, so I feel a bit stalled today.  I've lost the wonderful momentum I had last Thursday and Friday.

There are so many things I should do today.  What to do first?

At least I'm certain of one thing.

"If you have nothing to say, say nothing."

~ Mark Twain

St. Marys and Baddog Creation

I'm heading for St. Marys this week.  It's time to make Spring repairs to the little yellow house.

I made a repair to the front porch two Springs ago. With all the tromping feet along with the damp sticky coastal climate, wood has a tough life here.  I wish I had a photo of the finished repair. I did a GREAT JOB! Used power tools! The repair still looks good, (zoom top pic for the amazing results) but now everything's rotting away around it! It's getting down right dangerous around the edges. 

So, the carpenter will meet me there on Tuesday to replace the whole porch floor along with new heftier posts and railings. I'll take pictures as we go. You'll see the results of the hard work when I return home. 

Other news...
Last week I painted another Good Baddog.  If you're interested, I started with a base coat of light khaki, then threw on some raw umber for texture. I drew on the pattern and started with red. I love red.

Hunk a burnin' Elvis. 

Mona Lisa hair.

Mangy, but getting there.

Almost...

Done! This Good Baddog now lives with a very nice crazy lady in New York. Thank you, Martha!

Have a great week, y'all! See you when I return.

Love, 

Ronnie

Wordless Wednesday - Longing

 

(photo by Graham Hobbs)

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/21433204