Completed

The Sunflower

Mixed media on canvas

60.9x60.9cm (24"x24")

The Journey

mixed media on canvas

60.9x60.9cm (24"x24")

Eighteen

I now have 18 completed works for our exhibition 'Peeking Through Someone Else's Window'. I finally decided on the text for the old boots painting. Its a quote by author Greg Anderson, 'Focus on the journey not the destination'. I have also finished the sunflower painting. It was too late to take decent photos so I will post them tomorrow.

Bob is starting to be his old self again. He's still in hospital and still bed ridden but he's doing a lot better. Hopefully he will be home soon. He misses Jack. Julia brought in a large photo of Jack and he's stuck it up in his hospital room. Jack misses him too and whines at night for awhile. He's getting used to having Bob's spot on the bed at night though. That could interesting when Bob gets home hehehe.

And to top it all off Julia is sick too. She's got shingles. The pain is easing but she is just so tired.

My son Troy has just returned from a small holiday in New Zealand. He says its a lovely country and the people are ever so friendly. I would like to visit there one day too.

Nothing much else to report. Life is just rushing by at the moment. Adding hospital visits into my day makes me feel like I'm chasing my own tail. I'm having trouble keeping up with my household chores and my artwork gets done at odd hours. Oh well, this too will pass.

Carry On

Still haven't come up with the text I want to use in the work boots painting. I think it might be 'working hard to make a living' or maybe 'focus on the journey not the destination'. Anyway I've put that painting to one side and decided to carry on with the next.

I had an idea to use different handwriting and some book pages onto which I would paint a sunflower or part of a sunflower. Some of the handwriting is my grandparents, some is mine and some I got from the net. But as it sometimes happens the background is doing its own thing and getting a different feel to it. Not sure if its suited to a sunflower. I will just keep going with it and see where it takes me. I do enjoy not knowing the destination.

work in progress 60.9x60.9cm (24"x24")

Backgrounds

Another background ready for painting. On this one I've decided to paint a pair of well worn work boots as soon as the weather allows. It has that kind of grungy look that I thought would work well with some old boots. I won't paint them too big because I want a lot more of the background visible. I don't want to cover some of my favourite areas. This one has a lot of layers. I kept painting and then sanding and scrubbing back to show different layers through and then painting over some of the ugly bits to cover them up and then more sanding and scrubbing. As its been too hot to paint detailed things its meant I've spent longer on the backgrounds. More layers and a combinations of different techniques has been fun to do.

60.9x60.9cm (24"x24") canvas

Now this background below I've posted before. Due to popular demand hehehe I've decided to do a peach painting on it. Not a bowl of peaches or a basket of peaches like the photo in an earlier post but a section of a branch complete with a few leaves and a nice big fat juicy peach dangling from it. Its all drawn on and ready to paint next week when the weather is cooler and I can open up the curtains and let in some light.

60.9x60.9cm (24"x24") canvas

I have one more canvas this size and I've just started work on the background. I'm planning to paint a section of a sunflower on that one but that could change depending how the background turns out. I do plan things but I also like to let things happen so sometimes the background turns out a little different and then doesn't suit the image I've chosen to paint on it. That happened with the work boot one. It started out with colours and patterns that would suit a harlequin but now it has evolved into something else.

I've just found some GAC200. Been on the hunt for that for ages and finally my local art store is stocking it YAY. I want to play around with aluminum foil in my collage/mixed media backgrounds and a little GAC200 mixed in my acrylic paint will ensure that the paint sticks to the aluminum. It gives a lovely metallic look as the aluminium shines through the paint. Can't wait to see what happens with that. Aw, one lifetime just doesn't seem long enough to try out all the things I want to try.