Wordless Wednesday

Mousetrap?

What is that saying: build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door?

Well how about paint can? Last night I started to paint a floorcloth; I had drawn the pattern on Tues., and I was faced with the challenge of fighting with paint cans. There is just no good way to get the paint out. I have used the paint of one company that has plastic jugs. But that only presents the problem of getting your hand around the lid so you can unscrew it.

We can send people into space but we can't design an efficient way to package paint!

Happy New Year!

February 14th is Chinese New Year's. This year is the year of the tiger. Eat Moo Goo Gai Pan, and paint stripes and use lots of orange. Your fortune says: Investigate new possibilities in art. Sounds like a plan for a great year!

Wordless Wednesday

New Year

Painting: the best activity on the first day of a new year. A new goal: paint everyday of the year. Maybe a fantasy more than a goal. Just put paint to paper or wood or canvas. Squeeze out the paint and slide it across the surface. How luscious is that? Colors singing, pulsating, shimmering, turning into shape and form. Dedication & discipline is what it would take to make it happen, but, O the joy!

Murals

Murals are such a treat when you come upon them. This one I found on a side street off the plaza in Santa Fe. But then art is everywhere in Santa Fe, and in all forms.

Acrylics

In October I took an art workshop with Jerry Varnell. He was at the Dumas Art Center. Jerry paints a lot of wildlife which is not my choice of subject matter, but he paints with acrylics. Acrylics are the greatest art media on the planet(my blog, my opinion). I am positive that if the "old masters" would have had acrylics they would have painted with them exclusively. The colors are wonderful and the paint is so versatile; acrylics can be thinned with water and used like watercolor or applied thickly like oils. And they will probably never crack or discolor(we'll have to wait and see on that point). Jerry demonstrated some great dry brushing techniques that produce impressionistic effects. And one of Jerry's "tricks of his trade" is to replace white with gesso. Of course Jerry preaches, "Don't piddle, play, or putter"; get serious and paint! Good advise from an artist that has been making a living at it for 25 + years.