a few new paintings - from Serendipity retreat

I haven't blogged or painted much since I got back from Serendipity retreat in Nags Head, NC. (which was fabulous btw!!) In all honesty that could be because I've been sick for about a week and a half. Sneezing and a horrible hacking cough and fevers followed by chills. It's been horrible and I'm so glad I'm over it. I didn't make it to the gym for almost 2 weeks! Talk about stir-crazy!

I did find a perfect sick-day-craft though. I made felt in the washer machine using 100% wool sweaters I purchased at the Goodwill! I don't know what exactly I'll use it for but I do have a few ideas. Things we don't talk about until after Christmas. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Last night I painted for the first time since getting home from retreat. I really miss it when I don't paint or sculpt every day. Sadly, I can't. My schedule just doesn't allow it. But if I go more than a few days without it, my head explodes.

Seriously. It does.

I planned on painting all weekend but somehow got sucked into video games. lol So by Sunday night I packed away the computer, pulled out some acrylics (heavy body, fluid, acrylic inks), Adirondack alcohol inks, Stabilo graphite, oil pastels and a large sheet of watercolor paper and got to work.

The first three pictures below are ones I did at retreat. I did them in the class I took from Tim's sally aka Mindy Lacefield. What an awesome class! I have loved her paintings since the first time I saw them. She has such an interesting way of doing figures. Hints of my favorite artist, Jesse Reno, but much more whimsical.

So here are mine:
This is the first one I did in her class. We worked on several at a time. Well what we actually did was start several backgrounds. We worked on those all morning, applying multiple layers of paint, ink, paper, etc. Then we went to lunch. When we got back we started doing figures. The above is the first one I completed. She's cute :)

This is the second painting I did. Mindy demo'd how to use her techniques to paint an animal and I really wanted to paint one. Walking to the class that morning I had my own Zen moment as I stood quietly and watched a red fox trot down the street before running off into someones back yard. So the fox was on my mind when I painted this.

This is the last painting I did in her class. At first I told myself this wasn't complete. Duh, no hair!!! But the more and more I looked at her (him? it?) I heard a voice saying "Finished". I like the naive look on it's face with the bald head. It speaks of rebirth to me.

So that's what I call it: Rebirth.

Last night I wanted to take Mindy's techniques and paint something in my style. I'm not 100% convinced it was successful but I had fun doing it. I still need to pick up some GAC 100: Universal Acrylic Polymer. It's on my shopping list for my next Dick Blick's fieldtrip. I had to use a matte medium instead.

There are certain things I do that don't lend themselves to Mindy's way of doing faces. Mainly, my cheeks. And I'm in love with my cheeks so that might be hard to adjust. well, maybe.... I do like my face shaded using Mindy's color palette. In fact I really dig it. The eyes could use some work. It also needs more definition between the face and neck. I do love the background (well, all except part of the upper right; too busy. Need more resting spots). And of course crows are acceptable in ANY painting.

So the verdict? It needs work but I'm not unhappy with it. :)