I know, I know. It has been ages since I last updated. I really have no excuse, except that there was nothing for me to update about. I would rather post less often with more interesting things, than many meaningless posts.
With all that said, I finished a painting this week. I had been working on it for close to two months in my painting class during Summer school.
I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I learned so many things from my last painting instructor. I feel like my paintings have improved and are going to continue improving very, very quickly.
Cedar, August 18th 2009 |
Tags: Painting
Posted in Paintings
Everyday at the top of painting class our instructor spends about five minutes showing us a selected artist’s work. Today before starting the slide show he let me know that I would love this artist, and that he could see a lot of ‘me’ in the work. Well, he was right. I was blown away by the art of Julie Heffernan. All her works are self portraits, and upon first look are stunningly beautiful. Upon closer inspection, each painting is very dark, and somewhat morbid.
To view more of her work go to cclarkgallery.com or ppowgallery.com.
Cedar, July 2nd 2009 |
Tags: Artists, Inspiration
Posted in Inspiration
It seems like this painting took me forever to finish, but I did it. Part of the reason it has taken me so long is that I have got several paintings going at the same time, and my painting time has been divided. The others are all in much earlier stages, but I am so excited about all three of them!
If you remember, this painting is inspired by that photograph of the boy in the mirror.
Cedar, June 27th 2009 |
Tags: Painting
Posted in Paintings
Photo also on my Flickr
Wowee! This week was the first week of Summer school. Now that it is over, I am feeling completely pooped. I have been walking and riding my bike to and from school (3 miles each way), and I am feeling it. I am sure I will be very happy with the results, but right now all I can think about is the burning in my legs!
I have been working like crazy in my painting class. It is so different than my past classes, I get to work on whatever I want to. All the teacher wants us to do is continue working on a series if we have one going, which is great. I brought in a painting I have worked on the past few weeks, and have already accomplished so much on it. I can’t wait to finish it, so you can see the results.
I am really hoping I will find some time to get work done this weekend on the paintings I have going at home. The way things are looking right now though, it doesn’t seem too likely.
The above photo is one I took with my friend Dani last week when we had a picnic in Balboa park. I really want to paint one of the photos, but I have so many, I am having a hard time choosing out one I like most for what I want to do.
Cedar, June 18th 2009 |
Tags: Random
Posted in Random
Today was such a wonderful today. I ate lots of tacos at my dad’s house, hit up several thrift stores, bought four new (used) books, got a new summer dress, and bought six new wine glasses at the dollar store because our collection has severely diminished over the past few months.
The majority of the day however I spent over at my sisters new place painting with her. I hadn’t planned on painting, but when I got there we both really wanted to. She gave me all the supplies I needed; a 12×16 sheet of canvas, lots of brushes, and acrylic paints. I used to paint only in acrylics, but about eight months ago switched over to oils. I can not even begin to tell you how tough a time I had today working with the acrylics! I think I am going to complete the painting with oils. I seem to work much faster in them now.
This painting is from a photo of a young girl by the name of Maria White, taken in 1864. It was taken by Charles Dodgson, and is one of my very favorite of his photographs.
Cedar, June 10th 2009 |
Tags: Painting
Posted in Paintings
Hello my dears! What a week this has been for me. I have been struggling to keep myself motivated since school ended. It is so hard to go from a regular schedule to a bunch of time off, and I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to start school next Tuesday. As I do at the beginning of every semester I have already rearranged my schedule twice. I was originally going to take a math and English class. I decided this morning though that it would be a bit too much for an eight week semester. I dropped the English class, and added painting to my schedule. At least I can have some fun at school this Summer!
I started a new painting this afternoon. My sister stopped by and we painted for a few hours together. Not much done, but you can have a sneak peak at what I am working on.
I am already really anxious to finish this because I am sick of looking at the back of it. It is one of those hideous paintings from the dumpster. It will look a thousand times better once it is on the wall….at least I hope it does!
You may notice that I moved my little painting station. I had been painting in my front room, but so often I get disturbed by my cousin or neighbors when they see me painting in the window. My easel is now in the kitchen/living room area. It is so much easier to focus and get a lot done.
Cedar, June 9th 2009 |
Tags: Painting
Posted in Paintings
It has certainly been a wild past couple of days. I have been so emotionally and mentally drained, that I have come down with some sort of nasty little cold.
My dear sweet Great Aunt Mimi died yesterday morning. She had been battling leukemia for a little while now, but seemed to be doing pretty well until Sunday night. Growing up I was very close to her, and we corresponded through the mail just like I did with my own grandmother. Her passing is particularly hard for me, for so many reasons. One reason being that my grandma (her sister) died of leukemia also, and it keeps bringing me back to that very, very sad time. It seems so weird to me that on that side of my family she was the last living person in her generation. Her brother and sister both passed within the last four years, and now my dad and his siblings are the ‘old’ people. It kind of baffles me in a way, because I am so into my family history, and it never seems like there is enough time to hear all the stories.
From left to right is my great uncle Reps, my aunt Mimi, and my grandma, Susan.
Yesterday I could do no more than sit on the sofa and fill my head with mindless and unintelligent TV programs. Today I worked up the energy to get a little more done on the current painting I am working on. I didn’t do a lot, but I still feel like I accomplished a lot.
I can’t wait to finish this painting. As you may notice, it was inspired by the boy in the mirror photo I found a while ago. I really want to finish this before summer school starts in two weeks. I have a whole pile of blank canvas that I stretched from the dumpster, and if I don’t start some paintings, once school starts it is going to be very hard to find inspiration!
Cedar, June 2nd 2009 |
Tags: Painting, Personal
Posted in Paintings, Personal
A couple weeks ago my sister brought me over a box of oil pastels. I hadn’t used oil pastels since I was a little girl, about ten or eleven. At first I was a bit nervous with them, but I found them so much fun to work with. I quickly drew up this little lovebird in ink, and colored it with the oil pastels. The colors ended up looking more like a parrot though…I clearly need more practice, but I sure had fun with them!
Cedar, May 27th 2009 |
Tags: Drawings
Posted in Drawings
Photo from Foxtongue
I had been looking forward to a day spent working on two of my paintings and starting on some other projects. Unfortunately however, I have had a horrible back ache since yesterday morning that has refused to get any better. Rather than painting I have been pretty much lounging around on the sofa, trying not to move too much with my laptop on my belly!
I am really hoping that tomorrow will be a far more productive day…whether or not this pain in my back has eased!
A lot of times when I have extra time on my hand I sit around and like to look for photos or quotes that fit my mood at the moment. Here is one that struck me today:
“The source of genius is imagination alone, the refinement of the senses that sees what others do not see, or sees them differently.” -Eugène Delacroix
Cedar, May 26th 2009 |
Posted in Random
Hello all! I am home from San Francisco, and I had such a lovely trip. I was hoping to get some sketches done in my drawing book so that I would have some stuff to post when I got home. Of course, I got too caught up with everything else going on, I really didn’t have the time.
It has been almost a full week since I did any painting, or anything artistic at all. I am really looking forward to Tuesday. I plan on spending the entire day working on my current painting. Right now though, I am going through some Flickr favorites that I have saved trying to find some inspiration for new pieces. Here are a few that I am especially in love with at the moment.
This image is from one of my favorite Flickr users, Lulu at Home. She has the most amazing photostream filled 100’s and 100’s of images from her collection of vintage childrens books. There are so many different styles of artwork she has posted, that it is easy to get lost while scrolling through all the images.
I love when I come across an image like this. This young girl has such an intensely sad look in her eyes. The snapshot is absolutely beautiful (oh, and I want her hair!), and she looks wise beyond her very young age. It is so hard to capture such a strong emotion as this girl is portraying, so finding a photo like this is really special.
Lately I have been craving nature. I have been really wanting to go up to the mountains just outside San Diego and snap some of my own photo inspiration. I love this mushroom photo by Brian Hathcock, it looks so magical to me.
What can I even say about this photograph?! It is absolutely amazing. It was created in 1875, which totally blows my mind.
Cedar, May 24th 2009 |
Tags: Inspiration
Posted in Inspiration
