Daily painting 737 Dying...and beautiful.

Daily painting #737 8"x10" oil on primed panel (unframed)

I think the title of this little painting says it all...

I have some large beautiful fresh proteas that my husband bought for me last week. I was about to paint them (I still will as they will last for a while still), when I noticed how beautiful an old, dying protea was that had been sitting in my studio for a while now. It is starting to dry. The leaves and petals have shriveled and the colors are deep but fading....it is beautiful! 

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Daily painting #736 Still white

Daily painting #736 6"x6" ink and acrylic on primed panel (unframed)

I have had a week of no painting forced on me. Sometimes it is only when we are forced to slow down that we do just that! Last week while browning off sausages in a pan for an oven casserole, a sausage exploded as I turned it over and the hot fat splashed in to my eye! I would forgive you for laughing even though it was no laughing matter....the story sounds so absurd! My immediate response of course was to close my eye and put my hand to it which only served to spread the hot fat under the eyelid and further along the eye. A crazy accident! An artist with no eyesight would be the worst form of torture possible!

I saw an ophthalmologist and thank goodness the burn did not go on the pupil of my eye but I have had a very sore, raw and tender eye (rather ugly looking too). I also had to avoid putting any strain on the eye so no painting, reading or too much screen time. Without painting or reading life is kind of unbearable! So I have not been very happy. I still have supposedly 3 of the 10 days of rest left, but I am going crazy so I snuck in a quick ink and acrylic painting. These beautiful roses from last week are drooping and on their way out so I had to capture them just one last time. Now ssssshhhh.....don't tell the doctor I'm posting a painting.....our secret!

Hope to be back to full speed in the studio again soon!

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Daily painting #735 White

Daily painting #735 6"x6" ink and acrylic on primed panel (unframed)

My son had cricket games scheduled for all day Saturday and Sunday so I had resigned myself to the fact that I would get no studio time this weekend. However the weather had different plans and after an hour of play yesterday, the heavens opened and the rain has not stopped since. Cricket was obviously cancelled for the rest of the weekend. I am not complaining (my son on the other hand is bleak) as we so desperately need the rain at the moment and I don't seem to have enough hours to spend in my studio! 

I have been working on larger pieces again this weekend but started off with some fun little ink and acrylic washes and a beautiful (gorgeous smelling) white rose from Kate's garden. I tried desperately to load this one yesterday but our internet connection was not going to have it! The line was so weak that loading anything was wasting so much time and causing so much frustration that I eventually gave up...thanks Telkom! Today everything seems back to normal and I am finally back online!

Loving listening to the rain as I sit in my studio....a slow cooking roast is filling the house with heavenly, delicious aromas and I am about to close the studio door for some family time, delicious food and a good bottle of red wine! I hope you too are having a happy weekend.

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Daily painting 734 Pharmacy bottle and strawberries

Daily painting #734 6"x8" oil on primed canvas panel

My father-in-law was a pharmacist and we have a beautiful old collection of pharmacy bottles that used to contain many different potions for medicine making. Some of them still have slight traces of colour or stains inside which hint at the possible contents. Some of them still have the old faded labels or remnants thereof. We have all had sniffles, colds and blocked noses this week. Had he still been with us, he would have arrived at the door with some potion or other that was sure to cure us. He was still of the 'old school' where the best remedies were the ones you made yourself. Sadly he is no longer with us, so I rely on my own home made potions which includes plenty of rest and good doses of wholesome, fresh food. Plenty of green veggies and vitamin rich berries and fruit to give your body a good boost! We are all on the mend and I have been painting up a storm this weekend trying to play catch up for the studio hours lost.

I have been working on larger florals this weekend, you may have seen hints of them on my Facebook page Paintings in the post. They are large and painted in a far more suggestive manner. I rely on painting with emotive mark making and try to free myself up and make the mark count in a more organic way. These little still life paintings can be quite a contrast but they are so beneficial for my confidence and visual accuracy. They train my eye to see and my brain to translate in a way that makes me confident with my mark making and frees me up to be more confident when I am using a more suggestive mark. These little still life paintings are like the exercises that keep my muscles in good working order! So a little study to start the day....now I am off to tackle some more 'pretty' and some LARGER brushes. Then time to close the studio and enjoy the afternoon with my family!

Have a beautiful Sunday!

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Daily painting 733 Day Lilies

Daily painting 733 5"x7" oil on primed panel (unframed)

My garden is full of budding day lilies. Signs of spring. But along with Spring has come blocked sinuses and a bout of flu. I have been feeling under the weather this week and I have had sick kids home from school too. This doesn't make for very productive studio time, but perhaps it's natures way of forcing me to slow down a little. The flip side is that despite spending most of Saturday away in Pietermaritzburg to watch my son play cricket, the rest of the weekend will be spent playing catch up.  A working weekend it will have to be....at least there is lots of 'pretty' around to keep me inspired! Spring is a floral painters delight!

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Daily painting 732 Pink Monday

Daily painting #732 6"x8" oil on primed panel (unframed)

It's pink, pretty (probably too pretty) and oh so 'girly'. Actually there has been a lot of pink lately...my Art lecturers would love me right now with all this 'pretty' (definitely not!!). It's a pink Monday, but hey, it could be worse! It could be a blue Monday...and it's not.

Have a happy week!

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Daily painting 731 Pink ice-cream lolly

Daily painting #731 5"x7" oil on primed canvas panel

Spring seems to have skipped on by and got lost in the wave of early Summer. We have had such beautiful warm weather that it feels like sunscreen, bikinis (ok...maybe not) and ice-cream kind of days! It just feels like time to dust off the lolly moulds and make refreshing cooling ice-cream lollies for hot days. 

I have an easy-peasy sugar-free solution to ice-cream lolly cravings. I blitz frozen berries (whatever I have) in my blender with either yoghurt or some coconut cream and a few drops of stevia (if the berries are really tart, a frozen banana added is also good for sweetness) and pour the mixture into my mould. I pop them in the freezer for a while and just before they are properly set I push some wooden sticks into them. I never can find all the original plastic sticks that come with the moulds. I think they disappear in the pockets of the same creature that steels just one sock or the one shoe that your children are always determined were put back in their cupboard (i.e. not left at friends). 

It was a real challenge in the heat to paint a slowly melting lolly. As you know my little daily paintings are always painted from life because I believe the value in them is in forcing me to observe and translate what I see immediately and accurately. It's a challenge when what you see (the lolly) gets smaller and the messy melted puddle bigger...so QUICK painting today. A good thing because there is no time to fiddle or fuss...I had to make a mark confidently and leave it! Shew...I think I need a lolly after all that....

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