Meet Pinhead

Do These Shoes Make My Butt Look Big?
8" x 10"
Oil on canvas board

Sketch books are wonderful things. They are a treasury of inspiration and ideas.

Several years ago I did a sketch of a funny looking chicken out of one of those chicken identifier books. The other day I ran across it and imagined it in a huge pair of high heels- looking ridiculous- but feeling beautiful. I woke up around 3 am last night and started this painting.

It felt good to just plop the paint wherever I wanted without having to refer to reality. A good break after the boats.

Remember this?

I wasn't terribly pleased with the boring brown and gray.
So I made some changes!

Just Peachy
8" x 10"
oil on canvas board

I cut it down and mounted it on a piece of hardboard, changed the brown to purple, and the gray to green.

Ahhhh! Much better.

Same painting. Just cropped differently and jazzed up with more color. I thought about adding some highlights to the peaches to make them shiny, but they were drying out a bit when I painted them (not as juicy as when they were first cut) and somehow, I wanted to leave them as they are.

Chequered Chicken... or Go-Fish

Chequered Chicken
8" x 10" Oil on canvas board

I love this one!
I love the colors. I love the contrast. I love the subject matter. I love the feeling left behind after expelling it onto the canvas.

I had fun. Can you tell?

This one started a lot like the Sea Chicken. Doodling with dark purple to give me that oh-so-luscious coloring book feeling. Except this time the canvas was plain old white. Red is fun, but it takes so long to dry.

Realism is very difficult for me, but painting like this is just plain fun! Brad said, "Forget realism. That is why we have cameras."

This does not feel like so much of a struggle. I can just play and really get into a groove. But then, I wonder if it seems easier just because my hands and fingers and eyes are starting to wake up and remember how to manipulate the paint.

My Imagination is certainly waking up a bit. Last night it kept me up for a couple of extra hours daydreaming about a fat bug-eyed goldfish floating in front of purple striped wallpaper.

I think there are rainy seasons and droughts for ideas. Sometimes they flow and scramble over one another just to be heard, and other times they are scraggly and indifferent.

I love Monsoon season!