Etsy Shop Update!

 It's been a couple of months since I added fresh new work to my Etsy shop, so this Friday, March 22nd at 2pm central, these little ladies will be up for grabs:  11 just-completed original watercolor ACEOs, plus 2 5x7 watercolor paintings. And maybe a few other things...

 

 

I've also been trying to paint more up in the studio.  We're selling our house and it's hard keeping up a working studio when I have to keep the words "decluttered, clean, and pretty, pretty, pretty" (that's our realtor's words--she's awesome) in mind for would-be buyers.

Here's a peek at some eye paintings I've been working on.  Two of these have been in progress for a while, but are 99% done, one is a commissioned portrait, and the other four I started yesterday.  I am totally digging the milky, creepy ones.  They're like mermaid eyes or something.  Not blind, just eerie.  And now I'm heading upstairs to paint some more!

Painting Eyes

Working on some new teeny tiny eye paintings.  These are 2x2 inches, oil on board.  Not quite finished; maybe two-thirds of the way done.  Wet paint does not capture well, and I apologise for the pixelation.

New Paintings in Progress

 This is a painting I started months ago and just never got far on it.  This is the second time I've attempted this idea; I had a very specific goal in mind and the first painting just never got close.  I'm feeling much better about this one.  I wanted something that would evoke the feeling and light of East Bay in Matagorda.  On certain cloudy days the light is pearly gray and the water seems more silver than the muddy greenish it normally appears to be.  The ground is marshy and flat and covered in tall marsh grass, dull greens and golds.  The air smells a bit briny, a bit muddy. 

So this painting obviously has a long way to go yet, but you can get the basic idea.  Oil on canvas, 24x36 inches.

 This one is just a quick little painting I did to cover up another painting which was causing me pain.  I like this much better.  She's probably pretty close to being completed, more of a study than a finished painting.  Oil on mat board, 10x15-ish or so.

And this one is very very rough and raw; this is actually how most of my paintings start life--no drawings or plan, just quickly sketched in paint and then I go from there.  This already has a title: "I Eat and Eat and Yet I Am Not Full".  I didn't even prep this board; that's how fast I was working.  So all that white in the piece is just the mat board underneath.  Painting on mat board is probably not the best idea, but it's archival and I have a lot of it, so...

This piece will be worked on some more, but I hope to retain that raw feeling.  So NO OVERWORKING.  Right?!

I've been doing daily sketches in my newest moleskine sketchbook and posting the results on Instagram.  If you'd like to see them, my username on Instagram is "curvilinear".  I'd love it if you took a gander at them!

Drawing Stuff

This is what I look like when giving my sketchbook the ol' stink-eye.  So frustrated drawing right now.

 Hey!  She must be frustrated whilst drawing, too.

It's been a long time since I've sat down and just started drawing with no real purpose in mind, just putting pen to paper with no plans.  I find there's dark stuff coming to the surface and it's starting to lurk in the corners of my paintings.  I don't particularly feel like fighting it either.  Shadow stuff can be powerful, honest stuff. It's harnessing it that's difficult.  These quick sketches don't reflect any of that turmoil, but some of the paintings I've been working on lately...  Whooo, boy.

Beauty mark is such a pretty name for a mole.

New Stuff

 Thank you guys for the kind words and thoughts, you have no idea how appreciated they are.

Here's a few things I've been working on this week. Painting is really really comforting; it helps smooth out all the tangles in my brain (even if it's just for a few hours).  Art therapy works, heh heh.




 This one is still really rough:  oil on canvas, 8x10 inches.

 And here's a bunch of eye paintings in various stages of progress!  All are 2x2 inches, oil on illustration board.

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming...

So much is going on in my life right now.  This past month has been a complete nightmare of upheaval, drama, stress, and worry.  I'd like to think it's coming to a close, though.  There's so many things that I'm feeling I can't possibly identify them all, but I can tell you that the majority of them suck.  So keep your fingers crossed for a proper Hollywood happy ending.  Please.


I have been working in fits and starts, sometimes it helps soothe my brain a little.  Here's some things that are going on in my studio right now:

Just finished this eye portrait and sent it off to its new home.

"Keaton" oil on board, 2x2 inches.

 And this commissioned piece is finally finished!

No title yet, oil on masonite, 18x24 inches.

 Started this mermaid last week, so she's still really rough.  All that dark pink is just the underpainting.  She'll eventually have silvery greeny tones.  The background is marshy Matagorda and Gulf Coast skies, like she's crawling up out of East Bay or something.  It has a long way to go.  Oil on canvas, 24x36 inches.

New Oil Paintings on Etsy

 Here's a couple of new oil paintings that I put in my Etsy shop yesterday.  Just fooling around with stuff while I was working on these.  The first is rough and sketchy, but seems to be all the things I want it to be, so I left it alone.  Leaving a piece raw like this has always been difficult for me; I struggle against overworking a piece to death.  I think I'm getting better at it though.

 

"Cora Elaine"

oil on illustration board, 4x6 inches

"Getting Lost"

oil on canvas, 3.5 x 2.5 inches

This second painting is another example of stopping before I felt ready to quit, but in this case I should have kept painting, I think.  It's stupid to list a painting for sale when you aren't satisfied with it, but I'm done and she needs to find a new home.  So there.

Oh!  I also put a bunch of older paintings on sale in my shop, and you should totally check those out:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBrilliantMagpie?section_id=10273884