The Odd Couple

Does anyone remember the old tv show the "Odd Couple"?  The show was about two male friends, Felix and Oscar, whose wives had thrown them out of their respective houses.  Felix liked his space painfully neat and Oscar was absolutely messy– the tension between the two friends equaled fun for the viewing audience.

When I saw the picture of Dr. Iroh, the cat with the peaceful Buddha smile and Maiyu with her intense, wide open eyes,  I loved the contrast between the personalities of these two cat friends.  I have been purposefully looking for ideas and images that have that productive tension, that "what happens next?" part of the story that keeps us interested and watching to see what will happen.

I tried a sketch first to see if I thought the image would work as a painting.  The arrangement and lighting on the cats could be a challenge, but I did like the sketch enough to consider it.  Thanks again to Jackie Gratton for this cool photo of your cats that inspired me.

If anyone else has some "cool cat" pictures of their own they want to share with me, let me know.

Elusively Allures

Finding just the right photo or idea to get me excited about the "next" painting does often feel like searching for the "Will-o'-the Wisp": "A person or thing  that is elusive or allures and misleads".   I recently spent several hours going through my photo library and then sketching from some images I found on the internet, trying to illustrate some ideas for my next paintings.

I usually prefer to use my own photos.  First, because I don't want to worry about copyright infringement, which is an issue I take seriously and second, I usually get the right light and subject if I take the photo myself.  Sometimes though, it is nice to get an infusion of new images and ideas.

In my search for copyright free images, I found an excellent blog, "Painting My World" by Karen Margulis where she suggested two sites to go to: WetCanvas.com and Morguefile.com.  These sites have images you can pay for and also copyright free images to use for artwork.  (If you use the image unchanged, you do need to contact the photographer.)  Eureka!  I felt I struck gold. 

Along with other ideas, I was looking for cats that had a "story" and this little ghostly kitten captured me and made me itch to get painting.  I loved his silvery-ghostly softness and the look in his eyes that he was ready to disappear at a moment's notice... my Will-o'-the Wisp!

Second Christmas

January was just plain rough.  What I thought was a sinus infection drained my energy all month.  I managed to keep going little by little and finally finished "House Guest" which was supposed to be my Christmas painting.  Jackie Gratton gets the photo credit for the adorable photo of their kitten Maiyu that inspired me.

February came and with weeks of unrelenting grey, I finally got a photo of the painting that was a reasonable exposure during a brief break in the clouds for 20 minutes of sunshine.  I am not kidding, that's all you get and then clouds lock back up for weeks.  I tried some photos when it was cloudy and they had too much of a blue-cast in them.  I just had to wait. 

The sinus infection turned out to be a tooth that needed a root canal...ouch!

This painting was fun to do, just very time consuming getting the lighting right on all the little figures. A good thing to remember for future paintings.   I have Jeff to thank for mentioning to add the star, it really gave it a finishing touch.   I hope you will enjoy a little "Second Christmas" spirit in February.  I know I needed it!

Here I Go a-Caroling...

Merry Christmas!  I had a vision of sending a video Christmas card this year.  That was the easy part, next came the work of learning how to actually make a song in Garageband.  Several hours of reading "Garageband For Dummies" later...I put together my first attempt.  Oh, boy, I am so grateful I could re-record my voice and guitar until I was reasonably happy.  Meanwhile, I am learning how to run the video recorder and trying to get a night that isn't dumping snow to go to the Christmas Market downtown.  Jeff taught me the basics of iMovie,  hurrah for Jeff.   I am so happy to see it finally all come together and hope you enjoy it.  PS. I haven't abandoned painting, I do have a Christmas kitten painting in process to share soon.  

Journey

This painting is a something I haven't attempted in a long time...a landscape.  Some of the first paintings I attempted years ago in watercolor were landscapes and I felt they were not successful.  I tried a few more here and there over the years, but resigned myself that I was just not a landscape painter.  I am happy to say that after a year of focusing on my painting that I am finally satisfied with one of my landscapes.

"Journey" represents to me how the unknown lies before us and even with family or friends, inevitably we still have to face our fears and anxieties alone.  Moving to a country where I don't speak the language, trying to figure out my artistic voice, losing my father to cancer three months ago– I have felt the intensity of panic, negative beliefs about myself, and just plain uncertainty about everything.  The most relief I have experienced was when I could give myself some approval, reassure myself that we will have enough.

With Skype, I shared this painting with my sweet Mom.  She thought I should have painted two swans...I don't disagree.  Every journey IS better when shared with someone else, and I am so grateful I have Jeff to share with, but I couldn't change it.  Each of our experiences are so unique.  Heading out under the bridge into larger water, means something different to everyone.  My swan swims alone.

Inspiration Qwest

I am always on the hunt for any sculptures to inspire a painting here in Vienna.  Sometimes an idea is obvious, often it doesn't occur to me until much later when I am looking at the photos on my computer. 

This last subject falls exactly into that category.  Jeff actually pointed out "that great light" that was on those sculptures, and so I got off the tram and took a few photos, not really feeling particularly inspired other than by the lovely lighting.

I had planned to post the finished painting today, but a miserable cold kept me completely down for the last four days!  Catching a cold in the summer should be illegal.  I decided to at least give you the photo of the inspiration.  I had an idea to give this musician an update.   Hopefully, I will be able to show it to you next week.

The Keeper

Soccer is a really big deal here in Europe.  Where ever there is a little open space,  you will see many people playing soccer informally here.   Being next to the Donau Park, we can see several games going on simultaneously.   One of my favorite teams was a group of Orthodox Jewish boys playing the game complete with black hats and prayer shawls flying. 

On one of our photographic expeditions,  I found the best goalkeeper of all.  I can only imagine the lively game that ended with this result.  Yes, there was a little open plaza in front of this church in a block thick with buildings. 

I used the same palette of colors that I used in the painting "Wait for it", but I leaned more to the warm tones and added some Burnt Umber to the mix.  I am always amazed at how much you can do with basically red, (Alizarin crimson) yellow (Ocher), blue (Manganese) and some black and white.