For the whole holidays, I've been feeling like I almost have a cold. Today, it hit. Which was especially mean, as I was looking forward to some auntie time. With my ears producing dizziness, blocked-up feelings and pain, I wasn't going to be doing any musical activities. I thought about doing some paper craft things, but I've been feeling like painting for a little while - especially since watching
Frida. Now, there's a massive square canvas that has been sitting behind the keyboard for some time, and a few students have asked when I will finally paint it, and some friends have commented impatiently also. But there are 3 canvases I've had for even
longer that I thought should be dealt with first. I had a fiddle around with dimensions and ideas, and then I started painting.
In the process of inspiration, I turned to the creative site, Redbubble. I joined it by accident last year and, after spending many hours trawling beautiful images, I now only stop by occasionally. After looking at a few beautiful images today, I decided to add 3 new photos to my
portfolio. Anyway, I found an artist with paintings that made me want to create something similar, and I started painting. Of course, as soon as the paint started moving on the canvas, my ideas of what should take shape changed immediately. Partly, I think, because one of the images I uploaded was from
Mt Isa, and the blue seemed to be the same sky blue.
This painting will replace another largely-blue work, at the top of the stairs. I think. At present, that area looks like this:
One of the challenges of this canvas is the dimensions: 15x60 inches. Most of the ideas I've had look screwy in this dimension, and this is the first time I've attempted this.
Another challenge today was the paint supply. Once I knew this was an outback Australian sky I was painting, I wanted to do the ochre of the landscape. Problem: no large supply of yellow paint, and only small shots of yellow ochre. Solution: use up the last of the true red, mixed with green. Weird, but I'm more pleased with the result than I expected.
So far, it looks like this:
I know it needs a little something, and at this stage I often freeze, not wanting to stuff it up. I foresee a trip to the paint store so I have plenty of supplies with which to paint over mistakes (or, experiments that don't cut it). My idea for the middle is looking less and less likely...
Today's photo:
Similar to yesterday's... but this time with sunlight. We had a few hours of not-totally-overcast in the middle of the day, and the light caught the raindrops like crystals.
