Showing posts with label Rue De Faubourg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rue De Faubourg. Show all posts

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Rue DeFaubourg Brasserie

Rue De Faubourg Brasserie
14" x 11"
Oil on canvas

That was fun! I liked this one so much I submitted it on my application for OPA's Western Regional Exhibition.

Big brushes. And Flat brushes... I usually use filberts, but a while back I got some super short handled flats for my plein air set-up. I love them! I love this painting... It feels good. It felt good the second its bones were laid on the canvas.

Bones... that reminds me of an old wives tale-

An old woman wanders eternally throughout a desert collecting the bones of wolves. When she has all the pieces to make an entire carcass, she lays them out in the sand, aligning them in their proper positions with the greatest care.

Then she sings over them.

She sings of the life, death, life cycle, and of joy and sorrow, and of creativity. And as she sings, the carcass at her feet grows ligaments, and organs and muscle and skin and hair and soon the heart begins to pump blood through the veins of the wolf, and it springs up and runs off into the desert night, howling... The wolf's form changes in the moonlight and the howl turns into the light-hearted laughter of a woman.

An empowering tale from Clarrissa Pinkola Estes, PhD's book Women Who Run with the Wolves. A good read!

Back off the bunny trail... I did something else different with the painting process this time. I had two reference photos made of the same scene, one was normal and the other was posterized in Photoshop. In one of his books, Kevin Macpherson said to check out the posterizing option on Photoshop to help you see things in blocks of color rather than as things. Wooo-boy! That really did help! I think I will be doing that for a while until I really get the hang of seeing things that way on my own.

This is exciting. Good learning experience!

I've been chatting with my mom and we are going to take a painting holiday together! Southern France, I think. She is a master of "going with the flow" and said we should just save up, visualize taking this wonderful relaxing holiday, and the perfect vacation will present itself. I agree. (She knows, man!)

I can hardly wait!