Hi all. Today I've added a work in progress. I'm still in my oriental phase as you can tell. I sketched up my idea of Quan Yin, who is a goddess of woman, and health and all things good. I wanted a lot of movement, and etheral colours and serenity, and Instead, I've thrown in orange and mauve and turquoise, and its NOT what I wanted. So many things going around in my head, I cant settle on one thing. My artistic planner in my head is like a washing machine its freaky in there, water going one way, soap powder the other, socks have been mixed in with tea towels........, so is it any wonder this piece is Not serene, and not calming. Whinge, whinge, bloody whinge. I think I need to get a dose of sweetmango's blog and use " calm" as my mantra.

Thursday arvo is art day...........lurrrve art day. Today grasshoppers..........the lesson consists of-- no structure. You are to paint a fantasy creature with no reference material, just from your own heads.
So it was with those words, that my mind freed up, and my colour palette decided to have NO inhibitions....like I would never normally pick up bright green.!! I had a ball. I just played. For two hours, I couldn't make a mistake cos I was on a journey...........with NO rules. And so, now I would like to introduce......"Mango"

Finished, at last, I've been able to work my way through this painting to a satisfactory finish, I think. And just in the nick of time as its being picked up tomorrow night. Now I just hold my breath until, its viewed by the new owner, and feedback is received. Now.......a much earned contemporary piece is awaiting me, as a reward for slogging away over these dogs.

Stage two, and the montage is coming along nicely. I'm happy with it. But must admit the black dog is frustrating, as its features aren't many, and unless, I sketch a pile of fluff, with a few highlights on the fur, it makes for a boring life on Oh well, The bottom right of the pic needs a bit of help. And that is a bit of a quandary, I didn't want to overdo it with the silky, as he is the one who is passed on,and I already have two of him on the page, But I do have 3 each of the others...........and I do feel in my heart that the silky needs to be balanced, so..........looks like I get to do another one ( or painting of one, anyway.

You may remember the dogs I painted for my friends 50th birthday. Well, they were such a hit, Her friend always admired them, and now it is the friends 50th birthday. So my friend Nise, and her other friends, have commisioned me to paint this 'girls' dogs. She has two little dogs, so I've been given the photos of those two. VEry fluffly......please read........OMG, where are the eyes, how on earth do I find a personality, with no eyes ??
She also has the Love for a little terrior, that passed on last year ( passed on, I sound like a spirit reader don't I ??)
I was trying to work out, how I would place them on the paper. My original thought was that, I would paint the two Live dogs, in the foreground and then in the back, have the little terrior, floating with a little halo on its head.
Nah, Not working.
so,......my end decision was to paint the dogs, as many sketches as I could of them. and intersperse the " dead" dog, thru oat.
This is a work in progress as I will try and breathe some life into this painting.

How wonderful a model was George. A very pleasant man, who gave two consecutive weeks of his time, to model for our art class. I love portraiture. It is such a challenge to get a likeness, but that is not enough in my books, I try for a personality likeness also. I chose the side view, primarily because everyone had crammed in on the frontal area and I like my elbow space. And I was so glad I had moved. The light skimmed his nose and caught on the philtrum underneath. I would have quite happily kept painting george, he has an interesting profile. And I suspect George loved the attention he recieved.

I've used a different colour palette, than usual. This piece is titled " Throwing out emotional baggage" or something along those lines. It follows on from my empty nest piece. I've dealt with that one, and now, I think, others may relate, that, there comes a time, when you need to let go of the old baggage, before you can continue on. Sorry about the dodgy photo. I took 3, but, they are all blurry. thats what happens when you multi task at the same time.

Gifts for friends are probably one of the hardest things to paint. Instead of just getting in the zone, you dont seem to relax into the painting, because, it has to be special. Instead of just evolving on the paper, this piece has taken weeks to finish. Every time I came back to do some more on it, The more I saw. I laboured over this painting, and therefore doesn't have the flow that I imagined it would have. I will hand this piece over tomorrow, and watch my friends face, hoping upon hoping that I have captured her family as she sees them.
After speaking with my friend and mentor this arvo, I have decided to focus on what I do best instead of trying to be all things to different people. Lots of people can paint portraits and landscape, but not everyone does my whimsical look on life.
So from now on, I will be concentrating on being true to myself, just painting one style and giving it 100%.

I went to the opening night of the strathdon art show on Friday night, and met my friend Linda,( from art class) there. We had a great time walking around wine in hand critiqueing, as you do! An elderly lady was ushering an older gentleman who was assisted by a walking frame up the aisle we were in. "hurry Bob, you have to see it, its called the dinner gong or something , it is so wonderful bob, you just have to see it. !" He then protested that he was hurrying, and I watched them join a group of about 6 or 7 others, they were all huddled around my painting _ The dinner bell_.
They were laughing and identifying and pointing, and then they all declared that it had their vote.
Fast forward onto sunday, when I went to pick up my artwork, only 3 were available, and then the news. The dinner bell had sold. Story goes, one of the residents of strathdon retirement home, had said that it just made her so happy to look at it, that she would buy it and donate it to the home so they could hang it in the cafeteria, for all to enjoy. My heart was singing. My peice was going where it belonged, and it was doing what I hoped for as I created it, it made people happy.
Later on, as I was celebrating with a glass of champers, I had a call from the art committee to say that, votes had been counted, and I had WON the peoples choice award . That is better in my eyes really, than winning best painting, as that is the subjective view of one judge, this award, is the publics vote. YaY !

This is a work in progress. I'm a bit disappointed, its not at all how I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be fun and carefree and light and well, enchanting. I did have the background dark, and I just happened to have a postcard of David Chen's work near my easel, and it caught my eye.....mmmmmm, nice background David, I might just borrow your colours- half way through, i began thinking.....oh o ! But I kept going urged on by my theory, that worse things have been saved by perserverence. Not this time though, its just too......icky.......mmmm reminds me of tulle. I dont know what to do with the bottom of the page or picture. The reference photo stops at her hips. I've run out of milk, so I cant ply myself with coffee until all hours of the morning finishing. So, I may leave well alone until tommorrow.