Drowning

 

 Drowning

Mixed media    16" x 20"

Available  on my website

Besides the painting title, I have felt a little like I've been drowning this week. Its taking me some time to get back into the swing of things after my break, butlife is starting to fall into place now and with a weekend looming I should be all set by Monday.  A couple of weeks without painting always leaves me a little unsure of my strokes and lacking inspiration in some ways.

I'm in the process of building a new studio in the basement of my house.  Its about twice the size of my current one, which I hope to keep as well, and it will give me enough room to hold small workshops and classes.  Right now its having flooring laid and being painted, then there's lighting to be added.  As there isn't a lot of light in the room, lighting will be crucial.  Also storage and deciding just what furniture I want in that room.  So much to do!  Here's a little peek at production so far.  The room is long and narrow  9' x 20'.  Still lots of painting and construction left to do!

As my mind is all over the place, abstraction seems to soothe me, so I grabbed a canvas early one morning and started a piece based on a piece of writing.  The rest evolved over a couple of evenings til its now complete I believe.

I find abstract paintings really do paint themselves.  I have a concept of shape and colour but where it finally ends up can be anyone's guess, including mine!

Billie & Bunny

 
I've been travelling to see a new grand child and am compiling sketches and images of the adventure that I'll post during this week.

Right now I'm getting my sea legs again with a 3.5 hour time difference to adjust to again and back to work in the morning.

However, I thought I'd share a quick drawing that I did of a friend's dog, Billie. Its about 12 x 15 done in pastel.   Billie is a truly lovely dog, laid back, gentle and loves to fetch and and carry in true retriever fashion.  This became very apparent as everytime I walked in the door or entered a room she would greet me bearing "bunny", her favourite toy to play fetch with.  I started to call her "Billie & Bunny".

Billie was adopted and came from a French Canadian background, so only responds to commands in French.   After a few false starts, my brain cells recalled French enough to communicate with the dog.   "Donnez-moi le lapin, Billie."  Yeah right she thought, fight me for it first.  And so the game would repeat itself over and over.

Je t'aime Billie!