I have been revamping listings on Etsy to show how my paintings and note cards could look when displayed in rooms (or, as I like to call them, drawing rooms). The process of ‘framing’ them was fascinating, to see what worked and what didn’t. These are a few favourites.
A Little Serenity — acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 mm, 2018. Available.
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
Chinese proverb
Open the Door — mixed media on canvas, 100 x 100 mm, 2018. Available.
Pause — mixed media on canvas, 100 x 100 mm, 2018. Available.
“…it is part of the artist’s function to pay sudden attention to… the details the world is constantly offering us, and then, if adequately arrested by them, to give them a singular existence, transforming them without falsifying them to reveal the capacity that all ordinary things have to become suddenly remarkable when picked out by human vision.” Margaret Mahy
My 2017 in paintings…
Wild Clouds – acrylic on canvas, 200 x 610 mm, 2017. Available.
“All I can be is me — whoever that is.” Bob Dylan
Another painting; another journey. ‘Wild Clouds’ incorporates quite a few of my favourite things: mountains, clouds, light, texture, the familiar and the abstract. It won’t appeal to everyone. That’s okay. My husband diplomatically says “it’s not my taste” and that’s okay too. Hey, I’m not quite sure I like it. But then I leave the room and come back and think, mmmm, yes, it really is okay. It changes with the light. It shifts and doesn’t stay still. I love the colours and the shape of the clouds. It is playful. It is dramatic. And, at the end of the day, it is finished.
I used an almost identical palette to that of ‘The Heart of a Rose’ with the addition of a shimmery gold for the sunset. The red was mixed into the pinks, purples, and greys. I originally intended the sky to be quite golden and more like the reference photograph (see below) but it didn’t look right. It was too happy, too sunny for winter.The golden light looks wonderful in the photo… but then the snow in the photo isn’t blue. Changes were made, layers were added (a lot of lovely layers), and now it is done. It will be listed on Etsy next week.
Update: Wild Clouds is now available via Etsy or directly from me via my ‘Available Work’ page.
Wild Clouds – detail
Wild Clouds – side detail
Alpine Sunset, 2013, photo reference
Wild Clouds – in situ
