Salle de Bain Gallery

Many moons ago I enjoyed an active correspondence with my friend Anne—lots of postal art flying between our homes. I set a clear acrylic easel on the marble top of the master bathroom vanity and rotated Anne's art through my Salle de Bain Gallery frequently.

Bathrooms and art! Great combo!

Ever since my hubby and I completed (well, almost) our recent bathroom reno, I've had the idea to create a painting as a final decorating touch.

The bathroom grays inspired the background color for this now-completed-but-in-process-almost-as-long-as-the-bathroom-took-to-renovate abstract floral.

Two days ago, I did some acrylic color-mixing to match our pop-of-color hand towels.

Yesterday, the wrought-iron hardware on the vanity suddenly sparked a solution to my bedeviled conundrum of how to anchor the busy pink-and-red flowers.

Today, white porcelain offered up an idea.

Belting Out a Song in the Shower
11x14"; acrylic, latex, India ink, oil pastel, and collage on paper
floral pastel
2018
[not for sale]

Of the Field

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

abstract floral detail, work in progress

abstract floral detail, work in progress

abstract floral detail, work in progress

Still Along for the Ride

To any of you still along for the ride and cheering me on: thank you.*

My thoughts as I put away my paints today:

• I have enough artistic sensibility to be able to identify many of the visual problems I've created;

• at the moment, I have next to no idea how to resolve them; and

• I have just (barely) enough stubbornness and curiosity to keep me from tossing in the towel.

where I stopped today; WIP

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*I went outdoors to photograph today's progress and was suddenly aware of thrumming as I stood editing the image on my phone. Looked up to see a hummingbird hovering inches from my face and looking me in the eye. I'm taking that as a vote of confidence!

Wreckless > Reckless, II

Wreckless painting.

Reckless painter.

I have no idea what or if wallpaper covered the walls at my Great-Grandma Collins's home in Cobalt, Connecticut. But I stepped out of time and place to about age seven as I moved my paintbrush today and found myself in Bertha Jane's front parlor staring at the flowers papered onto the walls.

where I left off yesterday

where I stopped today

Romper Room

I don't often paint in the morning.

But today?

I relish nourishing early-day moments in my studio.

And I romp.

Windows and doors wide open to the fresh air and sparkle of a stunning summer morning in August.

Paintbrush and paints wide open to the unpredictable play of creating conundrums, puzzling out predicaments, ruining resolutions, and indulging impulsivities.

Really, though, what is that blue vase still doing there?

work-in-progress after today's romping

Wreckless > Reckless

I start refining the mayhem layers I created the past couple of days.

In no time I consider covering the whole mess with gesso.

But I tap into the notion that this painting is wreck-less, and that viewpoint nudges the needle away from fussy towards reckless.

I throw color onto the 'vase' and scribble all over the 'blossoms' with India ink.

Who knows where this will take me.

Down to the Studs

I have a favorite story from our recent bathroom renovation.

One weekend morning, Dave and I were companionably engaged in parallel play across the upstairs landing from each other, I in the study at my laptop, Dave in the bathroom tearing walls down to the studs.

I heard him pause and say, "Huh."

Then, more construction noise, another pause, another "Huh."

Then, more construction noise, another pause, and, "Dotty, come here for a sec."

He pointed, I scrutinized.

"Oyster crackers," I pronounced.

Indeed, about two dozen intact oyster crackers nestled in fiberglass insulation in the space between the wall of the bathroom and the wall of the adjacent bedroom.

Defies imagination, but there you have it.

I think of those oyster crackers every now and then when I paint. In the end, most of my paintings have more layers on them than we had layers on our bathroom studs. Usually, well over half of what lies beneath the surface of my completed pieces isn't visible.

Defies imagination sometimes, but there you have it.

Those of you who follow my blog or my Instagram page, however, often get to see the oyster crackers as I tuck them into place.

where I left off yesterday

rotated my paper end-to-end,
added yellows, orange-pink, and orange-red on top of India ink

rotated my paper every which way, flung some drops of India ink, and dribbled yellow latex