Painting Prep!

Since we're home for a bit, I've been spending some time in the studio...on a whim, I said yes to doing the Watertown Valentine's Day Art Crawl, so I kind of have to! (this is also where the "oh crap, that's in two weeks" panic sets in)

Watertown is this teeny-tiny town (maybe 2,000 people) about half an hour from us that's surprisingly....ummm..."bohemian," shall we say. Lot's of artsy folks there. Every Vday, they shut down the downtown, fill all the shops with art, and a train of folks from Nashville pulls into town for a day of art and drinking.

Followed by an evening of even more drinking by the locals as they wander (stumble?) from shop to shop, party to party. I've only attended once, two years ago, but the after-party is definitely where it's at. Did I mention they're bohemian and kooky? And here I thought we homos had the market cornered on Fun Backwoods Weirdos! Nope!

Originally, I'd thought to do a series of pieces loosely inspired by those religious icon paintings of old...but they started shifting away from that fairly quickly, until there was very little resemblance to the original idea.





This one below (and possibly the one above) will probably get reworked....not that happy with it. It's also lil' bitty. I drink too much coffee (and beer) to work lil' bitty....which is amusing since I just bought 10 lil' bitty canvases today. uess I should practice up or something.





This one is on wood, and may get some additional 3D work done to it....thinking maybe a ring of old nails around the face or something.


And then I wanted to paint a fish...because, you know, I like fish. Goldfish and koi in particular. They make me happy. Like puppies, but scaly and wet.



Right now I'm working on some wooden abstract pieces which are...interesting. I'm not sure I'll ever "get" abstract art. I mean, I appreciate it visually...quite like it, in fact...but when it comes to doing it myself, it gives me fits. Maybe it's because I'm more drawn to the human figure/face? Maybe that complete blank slate weirds me out? I don't know.

And speaking of which, time to hit the studio again!

R.I.P. Eiko Ishioka: July 12, 1939 - January 21,2012

Eiko Ishioka was an Oscar-winning costume designer, known for her work in stage, screen, advertising, and print media, and has been called "Japan’s leading art director and graphic designer."

It's easy to see why.

Elegance and style, simplified and ornate at the same time.

Goodbye, beautiful creature.

It's Spring!

Okay, so it's not spring...even though it sure does feel like it, given that it's been in the 50's-60's here. That'll be changing on friday, when we'll dip down into the teens and lower, but for now, I'm not complaining, since it let me get some bulbs in the ground.

http://www.dutchbulbs.com was (is?) having a "buy one get two free" sale, so I ended up with about 200 bulbs, all of wich were staring at me, saying "put me in the ground, damnit!"


There were some mixed daylilies.


And a bunch of muscari....some of my favorites.


Daffodils for the field in front of the house. There's a bunch of the regular ones there already, so it'll be nice to have some variety.



And some twice-blooming, double-pink Replete daffodils.


And some double asiatic lilies.

Now it needs to be spring. For realz.

In other news, after our NYE onslaught of guests, I managed to get my studio space cleaned up, and **GASP** even painted a bit the other night! Fixing to head in there and finish up a few pieces, and get a few more prepped for the future, since we'll be home until March (yay!) and I'll actually have time to work on stuff before we head to Phoenix.