Raindrops Are Falling On My Head

Woke up yesterday morning to rain…at last!  It has been dry and sunny for so long in Seattle that I’ve been feeling like a broken potato chip.  Maddie, the pretty good Airedale, has totally forgotten rain and staggered through her morning walk as though it were her final mile.  Enzo, the tiny terror from L.A. who remembers everything he’s ever seen or smelled,  was thoroughly disgusted with the whole wet thing and did some serious canine grumbling, and the always pleasant Mr. T and I both got our socks wet dragging the beasties through the puddles (hot damn, puddles!)  It was a very good morning, indeed.

I love this time of year…this break between summer and winter.   In the studio this is that special time between running the fans and running the space heaters, and that means I can happy dance without the fear of a broken body part from a cord trip.  As the days get shorter and darker, I find my work becoming lighter and more serene…when I look at old paintings I might not remember what year I painted them but I can immediately tell you the time of year…dark and intense…had to be July.

 

Superman Picks Flowers For Lois Lane

 

 

Above is an acrylic painting from awhile back…it was lost in my computer for awhile and I finally found it again…must have been a summer painting.

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Some Days You Eat The Bear….

It is unseasonably warm and dry here in Western Washington, to the happy amazement of sandal-footed Seattleites, most of whom have been eyeing his/her sandal socks since the first of September.   I’m still working in the studio wearing sandals sans socks, windows wide open and two fans a’blowing, with oil paints…and wondering what I’m going to do when the weather finally changes.

 

A friend recently gave me some oil sticks which I thought I could use like giant oil pastels…not quite!  I have some 28″ x 40″ sheets of Yupo (best described as very, very thin and bendy sheets of plastic or very, very thick and stiff sheets of plastic wrap) that have been gathering dust in the paper rack for years, which I’m using for my oil stick experiments.  The oil sticks stick to the surface well enough…it kind of “slicks” on… but I’m not sure that the paint won’t crack when I finally finish layering.   There’s a nice smeary, finger-painty feeling to these oil sticks, at least on Yupo,  that makes them kind of fun.  There are four different brands of oil sticks (maybe more, but that’s what I have) and each one feels and works differently…the Senneliers seem the softest but the other sticks might just be older and dryer.  Don’t know and, perhaps, I should find out.  The fastest way to learn about them, I suppose, is to find another artist who uses them and ask careful and useful questions…but where, in that, is the joy of discovery?

 

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