This week I tutored a sweet Japanese Physics student through stages of a philosophy paper, it was hard work for both of us -me eliciting coherent ideas and grammar, he pushing himself to produce, and then felt bad because I spent the money on paints and cheap brushes (when I have tubes of paint and sable brushes in storage). But a friend at another site loves #7 and has asked about it, so I should feel better...
Also I found a card table with a wobbly leg that I fixed in about 2 seconds and it's now a 'painting table' - so I don't have to put the dishes on the floor while I use the tiny bathroom counter - although it takes up nearly all the room in my tiny space. It's so damp down here too, that I wonder how these paintings will dry. Oh, fret, fret.
Ok, a garden goddess, based on a photo my daughter took (my choice of location & pose, I couldn't resist those roses), and I look way younger, but whadya wanna make of it? ::grins:: Paint & brush seem to be doing their own thing. Perhaps I'm celebrating a younger self, who knows. I guess I'll have to get a really fine brush to darken the face more & put a teeny tiny dot of colour in the eyes...
It strikes me that the 'open heart' of Self Portrait #7 has here turned into a canopy of open, blossoming magenta roses...
Oil on canvas, 9.25" x 7.75".
Update: Here's a merge of some photos over the last three years... no, one can't be blonde forever:) Click for larger size.
For Sparky's Self Portrait Marathon.
It's lovely, lush and warm. What better way to spend your hard-earned money?
ReplyDeleteI liked it better as it was yesterday, though. Not a very useful comment, I guess? My taste is pretty minimalist, though, in some ways - rarely find anything too much colour, but often too much detail.
Jean, hmmn. Yesterday's version is gone, though there's still a photo of it! Flikr turned the hair orange so I did some photoshop blue on it, meaning it never really existed as it was shown. The late night light also threw the colours and detail off. Today's is photographed in daylight, the colours are more accurate, and is as is. But, like you, I generally prefer the fresher, less worked... and something to keep in mind for next time!
ReplyDeleteI really like your honest appraisal too. That helps hugely. Thank you.
The joys of found furniture! Our old neighborhood in Dorchester was perfect for that. I love the interplay here between the sunlight in the foliage and in your hair. A riveting portrait.
ReplyDeleteE-journeys, yes, but to find exactly what you need exactly when you need it is absolutely remarkable. That's what's bowled me over - it's like I should be painting, or something. Such perfect synchronicities. The self portraits are excruciating, but I'm bravely continuing. Only another week or so in the marathon!
ReplyDeleteGo on then, why did you decide to stop being blonde? I keep deciding this, and then deciding, oh well, just one more time. Mind you, for me it's that or just let it go progressively grey - I look seriously alarming with any other colour; went all out with the henna once - oh dear!
ReplyDeleteJean, the Vancouver sunshine turned it way too white and it lost that array of blondes overlying my natural hair colour so I looked, in my kid's words, two-tone and weird. Also I thought going ash brown would help me get a job. Well, that did happen, but too late to keep me there & the hair colour didn't matter a whit. Oh, I also realized that the only times I had been in relationships was when I had brown hair, and I was determined at that point to take the plunge again. Sigh. Now, with the grey coming in, it's just easier to be all one colour - brown. Though sometimes I do miss it!
ReplyDeleteDo stay blonde! I can't imagine you any other colour either.
Well, I missed the earlier version ... life suddenly got busy in the last 24 hours. All I can say is this encapsulates beauty and abundance, and summer ... and you have chosen some of my favourite colours to use, I particularly like that blue-green shade, and the magenta of course. I had a summer dress in these colours when I was a child ... I loved it.
ReplyDeleteMary, who knows where this comes from, I'm facing rather the opposite right now. Although, I remember thinking I was carrying a girl, but decorating the baby's room with primary colour alphabets, and having a boy; and then thinking I was pregnant with another boy, but buying frilly dresses and a pink snowsuit, and of course she was a girl: meaning something inside us knows, a greater wisdom perhaps. The sense of flowing abundance in this small painting, who knows? Prophetic? Let's hope so...
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by...