Back to Work (again)

This started out being basically an artist site, but I am really enjoying putting in day to day reflections. I think I will turn it into a 'dairy' book and print up the pages as they fill up, giving me lots to look back on. The thought of the wondrous Blogger dropping everything in a dark moment, never to resurface from cyberspace, fills me with dread. There's nothing like a hard copy.

So, back to painting. I am not having great success doing small works, but am determined to keep learning. I am a planner, and like to map out what I am doing, fiddle with that in acrylics, and block it all in with oils. Then I leave it on an easel in the studio, hopefully not to present me with too obvious shortcomings as I learn to live with it, and hopefully love it.

I do think about the small paintings a lot, and watch what the experts are doing, but many hit the recycle bin. Some I have done I am pretty pleased with, and that gives me cause for hope.

So, My Flood Painting (see previous posts) ~ after looking at it for a couple of weeks, and letting it dry in the meantime, I have worked over a lot of the water in the foreground. I am still very pleased with what's happening from the fence line up, but the water rushing through lacks some sort of 'direction' (pun not intended). There is not much happening there, so I need to find some coloured perspective lines via the water and pull it all together. I also think the front water turbulence could benefit from some scaling down, i.e. the waves are too big.

Next, I am beginning painting No. 5 for my Coal Creek Exhibition below...............
(see my website: www.robynrinehart.com for more details, and finished works)

I have drawn it in roughly with acrylic paint, water and a large brush. The wheel section at the top was challenging to find the circle by eye, but I let it dry, then got a piece of string and a reference point to run it from. I was delighted to discover that it followed my found line almost exactly, except for a small stretch at the top.

I am really looking forward to going on to the next stage. This is the kind of work I love getting my teeth into. I liken it to stitching away at a beautiful embroidery ~ very therapeutic.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. "
.... Harold Whitman