Stretching With Reptiles

It's not a new fitness program, but rather the process for starting on my latest painting project....for hire this one! My past few weeks of painting was a warm up to this project. The subject is the beautiful African Black Forest Cobra. Was it my choice? No, but I'm very grateful to have a project to paint something for a real live customer! This one will definitely stretch the imagination and skills.

The path to the painting
When I agree to take on a project it begins in the mind. The ideas, the researching of images, the preparation of sketches, ideas, a color scheme. It takes very little ACTUAL working time at this stage, but it consumes my mind for some days and even in my sleep as I think about how I am going to go about painting the image. It might look like.....stalling.....looking at snake pictures. Then the drawing....fiddling around ...... a few afternoons with the actual drawing, scaling and putting the pieces into perspective. Then, that magical day arrives when the inevitable cannot be put off any longer....I clean off glass palettes (more diversion).....squirt out a few colors .... and I paint!

After that initial drawing I spot colors upon the pristine white canvas. It takes the first bits of mid-tone color. I have been working with an approach of taking the boldest color of the palette and covering the canvas with it. I use a very loose mixture of pigment and light medium. It's almost transparent and my underdrawing will show through this layer which will guide the next layers.

At this point it looks silly and weird! But I do not despair, for this is only the start. This is usually when Don comes out to see what I'm doing, looks at it, and walks away! This isn't the pretty stage no matter what the subject.

The next session has me adding more definition to the subjects. Yeah, it's still weird looking, but trust me; it will all work out!

Music helps
I like to listen to our DirecTV soft jazz station while I paint. It is motivating but doesn't demand my attention. I like to drift away on the tunes, not even knowing the artists, but enjoying the flow while I paint. Three hours will pass and I won't know it until I come up for air.

Winter weather helps 
The details of each snake are now starting to develop. Another few hours to bring it into focus. I am continuing to work wet-into-wet even after several days. I use Grumbacher Medium II which is slow drying, but not THAT slow drying. The canvas and the palettes are stored in the frigid main area of our barn when I'm not working. It prevents the paint from drying as is equal to putting everything in the freezer!

The final product

Scales are painted, highlights and a general fine tuning. This will sit for a few days to dry before I put a protective spray of matte acrylic on the surface. Into a frame and it will move to its new home. Giving it a break for a few days will give me time to come back with "fresh eyes" to decide if it really is done. 

What did I learn?

It doesn't really matter what the subject is.....find the art in it. I found myself being very fascinated with snakes having spent these weeks studying their own version of beauty. Everything boils down to shapes. The shapes I represented happen to belong to a large poisonous reptile. I like them a lot from my end of the brush!

Corpse Corners

Mercury retrograde offered up some strange days last week. I usually don't put too much investment in that happening until tragic events started happening. It wasn't just the miscommunications and inconvenience of misbehaving mechanics. This was real life and death.

The week started with the disappointment of getting notice that NONE of my entries made it into the ArtsWest show. Bummer. Dang!!! Not tragic, but has me scratching my head about my brilliant art career. (Yes, note sarcasm.) 

Next, my friend accidentally ran over her border collie killing her instantly. Poor Lilly was a youngster and it was just heartbreaking that this bundle of joy and energy had her life abruptly cut short.

The last shoe dropped when the Pepin County Sheriff and deputy knocked on our door. They wanted to know if they could access the railroad tracks by passing through our woods. Seems there was report by a train engineer that there was a BODY just off the tracks behind our home.

Shortly before the sheriff arrived we heard a loud sudden shudder from a passing train. A bit later a helicopter was circling. The engineer had spotted the body and slammed on the train brakes and called it in. Fire trucks and rescue vehicles were parked on the highway in front of our house for the next two hours and gave the horses quite a thrill.

Don offered to go out and help, but they had scads of people to go out there on that blustery15 degree day. His plastic otter sled was used to haul the person out who was quite dead and frozen solid. He was wearing blue tennis shoes. We watched them work in our driveway as they loaded the plastic wrapped body into a white bag on a gurney and loaded him into the awaiting vehicle for the ride to the St. Paul Medical Examiners office. 

A couple days later the young black male was identified as 35-year-old Steven Jouie Glaze. The link tells his story up until 2008. It seems things literally came off the tracks to the sad end of his life. It's still a mystery why he was on the tracks and not dressed for the outdoors. Pleas by law enforcement to contact family members have gone unanswered.

After a week of sad events, it is good to appreciate having a warm home and a great life. Things could be so much worse. 

Art Glass Sculptures Entered in ArtsWest

This will be my third year of entering the ArtsWest competition that is sponsored by the L.E. Phillips Memorial Library in Eau Claire. It's always fun to have something like this to look forward to and this year it was my goal to enter glass works instead of paintings.

"Equus Glass Co." is a stained glass sculpture on wood.....the end of a glass crate to be precise. A few embellishments turned it into Equus Co! The nordic tattooed horse head is made of black iridescent glass is copper foiled. The mane is twisted lead came and the whole thing was treated with black patina. The light will dance across the glass in an array of colors.

My second entry is called "Something About Bees" and is layers of glass, starting with mirror. Etched honey comb on frosted glass flanks the amber cathedral and opal hexagons. The base hexagon is framed in recycled brass window channels. Super large bees are dimensional. If bees were really this big we might be paying more attention to them! The plight of honey bees is real and this "squeeze on bees" is illustrated by the outside (dead) combs encroaching on the live hive. Ultimately the source of the problem? Look in the mirror. 

That's as deep as I can get today! Now to await the jurying process and think about all the fun new creations to work on this year.

Happy 2015 From Hagar and Nikita!

It's kind of a sad day when adults are having to put on their furry hats and take selfies!

Oh, well! Here's to a FUN new year!

Stanley's Back!

Winter has arrived with a bang.....very early and is staying on....for sure!

Our DEER Stanley has arrived at the bird feeder with his wife and kid in tow this week.

He's older and bigger and more .... tired. Hopefully increasingly wiser! From appearances he can make it through another winter. We are thinking he's looking good but hope he knows he is safe here and can continue to father many more youngsters in the neighborhood!

The Rise and Fall of Fall

The water is very high for this time of year. A rainy summer especially up north has given us a great supply. The mosquitoes have reached a new fever pitch. Just waiting to see how soon the frost will arrive and take care of those pesky biting problems.

This time of year brings an assortment of art tours but I decided to do my own THANG this season by being "open" at my own studio a few weekends a month. Since I spend nearly every afternoon out there it just seemed to make sense.

Getting the main barn area presentable is always a problem and keeping it that way is an exercise in futility! Whether it is neat, or not, the show must go on. The Fresh Art Tour is going on the first weekend in October. I wasn't entered early enough to be included officially on the tour map this year, but will plan to be open for the three days anyway. Will try winging it!

My Etsy shop has been growing and I'm up to over 70 items offered now! The sales of these little Crazy Legs boxes has been one of the top sellers. I appreciate the "likes" and "shares", too! Thanks to all who are so supportive of this new offering.

Mother Goose and New Mother Goose

The blessed event occurred Friday morning, before we left for our day, and it involved the hatching of four baby geese. They were properly placed under Mother when we left, but were decidedly LEAVING THE NEST when we got back.

So we let Mommy and her babies, daddy and the two uncles take care of the clan over night.

THEN....the word came through that a NEW MOMMY would be taking over the rearing of these young.

My brief Facebook post about these youngsters prompted my friend and super farrier, Kari Hoyer, to say YES, indeed, I shall rear those youngsters at my beautiful home in Esdale! The spring that sprouts from the backyard, and makes a 3/4 moat around her home......yes! It will be perfect for these lovelies.

So, a little more than 24 hours and the four little geese have their new Mommy! And her name is Kari.

Thank you for offering these four youngster a great place to grow up!