Yesterday was a good day

Posted on | April 18, 2007 |

For the most part, yesterday was a very good day. I painted for the majority of the day, went to a thrift store and picked up some pretty fabric and other things to use in my art and I spent less than $6. We love days like that! LOL I also got in the mail this lovely gift from Wendy for our Cuppa Tea Swap on Flickr. I can hardly wait until T-day, which is this Friday. I am really looking forward to trying these lovely teas. In the meantime the card will hang on my newly designated “mail art” wall. (I will take a photo soon!)

And I also realized that I often show the art that I like, but rarely the art I don’t like. I wanted to show you what I do with something when I don’t like it. To the left is an image of a canvas when, after four or five tries, I can’t seem to get the face right. I will either (a) throw it away if it’s on muslin or (b) cover it with at least two layers of gesso and start over. I took option “b” for this one, since i used a stretched canvas for this one. I often will repaint or gesso over a stretched canvas if I don’t like where it’s going. Or I’ll just paint over it and use the background and put enough paint or layers of collage elements over it to make it completely hidden. I just thought it was important to show that I don’t always like what I do and we all have to just keep trying!

I also wanted to share a face that is coming out as I envisioned it. I need to do a bit more on it to fine tune it, but I thought it would be fun to show you where it is at this point. I just need to fix the nose a bit and add some detail to the eyes and mouth. I started this one around 4 pm yesterday and stopped at 6:30. It’s getting easier and I think the practice is helping me to create my own style and to see which faces I really like and want to pursue. In general, I’m enjoying myself with this. It’s nice and relaxing and something I can do from my chair. I get completely mesmerized… it’s almost a meditative, zen state for me to focus on these paintings…

Enough philosophical thought. Now I have a piece of mail art to share that I received yesterday. Tracey created this postcard to use as her change of address postcard. She made this in a Traci Bautista class and I’m so glad she used it in this fun way. Congrats, Tracey and Tim, on your new home!

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