Neutrals (4)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• My magic pants (Columbia® calls them something else) and walking shoes were comfortable for 51 degrees at 500a.
• I changed out of my magic pants four hours later in favor of a skirt and flip flops.
• A 5 x 6-foot closet can hold a significant number of items.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

neutrals postcard start #2, resting

Neutrals (3)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• This afternoon I will burn a bag of outdated paperwork culled from a file cabinet upstairs.
• I discovered in a stack of stored folders a pad of lined paper with a company logo at the top of each page and have been unable to decide where to give it a home for future use.
• I don't have criteria yet for facilitating my decluttering of the green closet.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

neutrals postcard start #1, resting

Twists and Turns

Followed twists and turns today.

newest patch painted onto grid-format work-in-progress

starting place: offloaded paint from yesterday

detail from today's patch

today's patch as seen in partial context
of the whole work in progress;
working title: Core Values 

Core Values

OK, I might be working for quite awhile on the big piece of foam core I've got going—I think it needs a working title for the duration, so I'm going with Core Values.

I could also call it Crazy Quilt since I seem to be approaching it patchwork style, adding this and that willy-nilly as the spirit moves me. Today's patch:

newest patch painted onto grid-format work-in-progress

detail from today's patch

today's patch as seen in the context
of a larger section of the work in progress;
working title: Core Values 

This and That

Some of the this-and-that to which I referred yesterday:

New Project

With my new bookmarks completed (and one already in use—yay!), I've moved from a 'canvas' of 9 square inches back to the huge foam core 'canvas' of 1,728 square inches on which I first put marks a few weeks ago.

I've now added a thin slapdash coat of gesso, penciled off a grid of 6-inch squares and various rectangles, affixed tissue and magazine collage randomly, and set up for myself a big playground.

I don't have any particular outcome in mind at this point. Instead, I'm thinking of this foam core as a blackboard (whiteboard), an 'erasable' space where I can follow my nose to try out this or that.

foam core playground
(challenging outdoor lighting)

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Update on my Valentine/birthday hearts grid for Dave  : )

A Leap Between Our Hearts Like Fire in Dry Grass

6x6"; acrylic, collage, India ink, and pastel on gessobord

abstract
2018
[gift]

Lost Love

For Valentine's Day I painted my valentine a painting.

He was entirely delighted with it, took it to work, propped it on the fireplace mantel in his office, showed it off to many a colleague.

A week or two later I had cause to stop by his office with him on a weekend so he could pick up some papers he needed.

Huh.

No Valentine painting in sight.

I inquired.

He turned reflexively towards the mantel and then stopped in his tracks.

Huh.

No Valentine painting in sight.

Did someone appropriate it when no one else was around?

Did it land in the wastebasket regrettably situated where it could easily have been an unintended receptacle for art when an oversized item on the mantel got bumped a week earlier, taking all manner of items crashing downward with it?

Don't know.

May never know.

I've painted up a new Valentine to give my valentine on his birthday today.

My good sense says to reuse its original somewhat sentimental title, 'cause my guy is a somewhat sentimental guy, but each time I picture that Valentine in the wastebasket, the mischief-maker in me hears an Everly Brother's song of yore.

I finished this painting during our third nor'easter in two weeks—
figured it deserved an outdoor photo shoot in snow!

Don't Want Your Lo-o-ove, Anymore!
6x6"; acrylic, collage, India ink, and pastel on gessobord
abstract
2018
[gift]

Off to the Races

Oh my gosh, did I ever have fun stepping out of my same-old-same-old over the weekend. No solitude in this studio! No indecision or precious grasping here!

While in Virginia, 8-year-old granddaughter Emmy asked, Gma, do you want to paint?

Next thing I knew she had a plastic cloth spread over the kitchen table; canvases set up for herself, me, and Caroline; paints and brushes out; three palettes in place; and a cup of water at hand for rinsing brushes.

Then we were off and galloping, no one holding any reins that I could see.

You want paint? Squeeze a whole bunch out of a tube.

You want a different color? Mix wildly.

Brush not doing what you want? Use your fingers.

Blueberry Trees
by Emmy
12x16"; acrylic on canvas board
abstract
2018

None of Your Beeswax
by Caroline
8x10"; acrylic on canvas
abstract
2018

work in progress
by Gma
12x12"; acrylic on canvas
abstract
2018