Tag: Art

Still Life 1

I am thinking of getting into doing simple still lifes with photographs and ephemera. I’ve done a few experiments. I don’t have the most professional looking materials. I don’t even have white foam board right now so I am using white tissue paper from gift wrap. I enjoy arranging decor and photographs and little odds and ends to make a picture. I’m debating investing in a Polaroid camera so that I can use little polaroid pictures for my designs. But for now I’m going to use the stockpile of regular photos that I have printed and haven’t used for scrapbooking.

This picture was taken when my husband and I first got married. I believe we were in Washington DC in this picture out to dinner. If not, we were in Rome. The background so dark and blurred and I can’t quite remember whether this was one of our trip to DC or our trip to Rome that year.

New Paintings

Maybe it is just because I am in love with the creative process, but I keep finding that in making one painting I am actually making multiple paintings. So I began to photograph paintings at different stages, only to realize that they are really separate paintings. With the way paint can be shaped and layered upon you can create so many different paintings on one canvas OR artist trading card.

Abstract Painting Book

I bought this wonderful book on abstract painting techniques last summer. But before I could really start using it I suddenly became very angry, depressed, and discouraged about my creative process and I sold all my paints and painting supplies, along with a lot of other art supplies. I had bought all those paint the intention of really learning what to do and I had a huge number of them and I just got rid of them. But creatively I think I have healed since then and now I’m getting back into it, but I have had to start from the beginning with my paints. Starting out in painting is expensive. I had to buy all the bases to get paint texture, as well as gesso and palettes – on top of buying different colors of paint since I got rid of over seventy colors.

I am returning to this book to learn some techniques. I’m so glad I at least kept the book. I basically never throw out a book, and it looked so cool. I just wish that I hadn’t given up on Visual Arts back then. I would know so much more than I do now and I wouldn’t have lost money. Sometimes I just get angry and disenchanted. I’m not sure why. Maybe I was feeling untalented and upset about that. But I don’t know that that’s the case because I have never claimed to be a visual artist. I am merely someone who loves to experiment with color and texture. I am not a painter. I’m a writer. I may have been frustrated with everything at the time. Sometimes I just get angry or hopeless. Other times I tried to narrow the focus in my life, only to discover that I am not a person who can narrow focus. Despite being driven to create visually as well as verbally, I can feel extremely stymied. Like I’m just hitting a wall over and over again. But knock on wood that isn’t happening again so far. I’m beginning to get into the visual again with photo editing and with painting. And I may add some other things to my list as well. I will have to see. I feel like it improves my writing to work on the visual arts. That way my brain is kept sharp and creative all day long without focusing on my writing to the point of burnout or having nothing to say. So while I am not and never will be a painter, I can improve my writing with painting.