Sorry State of Affairs

So much for *not* the best laid plans. It's been more than two months since I darkened the blogger door. The summer has been about travel and being in the studio. Lots of little trips, hiking and camping, swimming and recharging. Lots of work made and posted on Facebook, please follow me there for all the latest in this messy process. You will find, a painting on mylar here, a contour drawing there, a plein air drawing (not from life) in another place, some dabbling in collage, some studio drawings in my sketch book etc. See, messy.

The piece I posted in this blog in June has been reworked once again. I posted it here. I think you can see it even if you are not on Facebook.

When I say messy, I do mean messy. The whole process is messy for me. It's taken me the summer to get my head in gear, and my body recharged, only to have life just go on and on, requiring more head work and body recharging. You know how it is, one thing done, another thing crops up. One of life's curve balls dealt with and another just around the bend. This is not a complaint, this is just life. A sorry state of affairs sometimes, a glorious adventure others, and sometimes both simultaneously. A little health crisis here, a big loss there, a move over here, a birth, a death, a lovely trip, a brief fall into despair.

Some exciting news: I will be in another show in January, a small group show on a well respected and beautifully curated website with 5 other artists with whom I am thrilled and honoured to be exhibiting. Stay tuned for details.

Below is a look at my messy process: This is a piece I'm working on as part of the series (started last year) posted to my website on the page  Paintings on Paper. I've been meaning to get back to this series, and now I have.

First stage:  I don't like that Tim Burton face, and overall it feels wishy washy. I started with a light pink/white/blue background and painted in the green cloud and the blue bottom, then I globbed on some piles of paint from left over paint and responded to that, yes there are some sparkles in there.

oil painting on huile paper using leftover paint and fresh paint, stage 1

Next day I looked at it and decided the face had to go, I scraped it out and reworked the background, that figure is too blatant, or something.

oil painting on huile paper using leftover paint and fresh paint, stage 2 

Then I added more pinky purple in the top, integrate the figure, repaint the face, make that oil spill hand more globby. Hmm, I don't know, 

No, not right, redefine the figure, bring up that fence at the bottom a bit, more intense colour by the head to the right etc. Look at it tomorrow.

Sorry State of Affairs, in progress.

Edited to say, reworked and reworked again and  retitled

Can't seem to lighten up