IF: Focused

Gouache doodles

Now I'm playing around with gouache on watercolour paper.  Sometimes it's hard to commit to a medium, isn't it!

 

Painting: Teacup

Acrylic, 16 x 16 canvas, 2008.

For me, a nice cup of tea brings me many happy thoughts.

Painting: I Will Protect You

Acrylic, 28 x 22 canvas, 2008.

The lighting wasn't great when we photographed this painting. It is also larger than my typical paintings. Like the others, this sat as an unfinished underpainting for months before I started adding the foreground elements, and the girl with the cat sprang out to complete the image. This painting depicts the most closely how I've been feeling lately towards my family. Happy happy!

Painting: Adorable

Mixed Media, 12 x 12 canvas, 2008.

Like many of my paintings, this one sat as an underpainting in my closet for about 6 months before I decided to add the foreground elements. My process is sometimes frustrating because it requires a lot of incubation, then sudden impulsive action. The painting asked for a leaping figure, so I happily obliged. This is one of my favourite paintings at the moment.

Painting: In the Afternoon

Acrylic, 14 x 11 canvas, 2008.

This one had been completed about two months ago, but was sitting in my closet. It was my first time experimenting with separating layers using gloss medium. I think it makes certain elements 'pop out' from the surface.

Painting: For You

Mixed Media, 10 x 10 canvas. 2008.

(I decided to do away with the watermarks, because they were putting me off from updating this blog. Not like that's my only excuse, but it didn't help!)

Painting: The Bliss in Not Remembering

Mixed media, 10x10 canvas. 2007.

Drawing: Baby

My daughter at 7 months old.

Graphite, 9x12 watercolour paper

Painting: Untitled

Acrylic on canvas, 8x10. April, 2008.

Painting: Lost in Lucidity

Acrylic, 12x12. Painted in the fall of 2007.

Painting: The Signal to Start

This one was painted in the fall of '07. Acrylic on 10x10 canvas.

I think I started painting this in late '05, with just the figure, and I left it on the shelf for a very long time because I didn't know how to resolve the painting.

Painting: Untitled

Acrylic, 14x12.

After I graduated from my B.F.A. program, I stopped painting for almost a year, doubting my abilities and being very sad about my creativity in general. I think it was the effects of my schooling - the last year pushed me very hard and I graduated feeling like my paintings were stupid, trivial, and had no place in the world.

That may still be true, but after a while, I just felt like putting some paintstrokes down on something. This untitled painting was one of the first things I painted after my year-long hiatus.