Most of the time I am sufficiently happy to spend my time in a two dimensional world of painting, but every so often I crave a three dimensional project. Yes, this means I have started yet another project/series leaving all of my other art endeavors to silently collect dust for a few days/weeks. I wish I was a little less scattered with my inspiration and projects but I also like to follow that inner voice that compels me to make strange useless things.
I bought a few packs of firm sculpey this week and just started experimenting and playing with it. Sticking to a nice and easy subject matter I made a decent looking pointe shoe with ribbons. My issue then was how to best display it. I found this cute little 4" by 5" frame, so I painted the frame and backboard which would then provide the background and platform for the shoe. After putting this all together I realized that I had subconsciously recreated my pointe shoe paintings which I have been painting on an off for the past five years. I am currently sitting in front of two paintings with similar colour schemes and aesthetics which means I just accidentally made a three dimensional version of one of my paintings...weird. This little guy can now be found in my Etsy shop and chances are there will be a few more variations of this before I move on to other projects. :)
Sometimes commissions are a pain in the ass but in this case I enjoyed the whole process. It is always difficult to figure out what someone expects their painting to look like, and non artists often have a hard time explaining their vision. Often people decide what they want after seeing something they don't like which ends up causing lengthy revisions and repainting. However, I love working with great people and bringing their vision to life.
One of the perks of commissioned work is getting to know my clients and their stories. My client Kelly and her best friend took a graduation trip to LA, where they both splurged on
a pair of designer shoes. To celebrate her friends birthday Kelly had me paint these shoes as a memento. Since I spend a lot of time painting ballet shoes this fabulous pair of Jimmy Choos was a nice easy painting to complete. It took me approximately ten hours to complete this 11" by 14" acrylic painting. Initially I did four sketches for this commission to work out the composition and then coloured them to see if I was on the right track. I then got my paints out and started working. I added gold, silver and bronze paint to my pallet for this particular piece to help capture the sparkly shoes.
In December I finished my big studio sketchbook. It took me almost three years to complete roughly a hundred illustrations/drawings/sketches. Some pages are filled with quick pen doodles while others have carefully drawn and painted figures. It's interesting for me to look back and see my progress as well as reoccurring themes in my work.
This weekend while enjoying the beautiful mountain weather at my cabin I finally found time (with the help of Sebastian) to make a quick little film for it. As usual Sebastian (aka The Vinylist) supplied music for my art and in this case he even edited it for me!
At the end of each dance season I am the lucky recipient of a multitude of handmade cards, rainbow loom accessories, starbucks gift cards and other fun ballet themed things. My favorites are the handmade cards and letters of appreciation that I get. I think my favorite card this year had a mermaid ballerina on the front!
This year one of my students gave me a beautiful pink orchid. We shall see if I am as good as my mom at keeping these tropical beauties alive but just in case I thought I should paint them and preserve their beauty!
Pink Orchid is 6" by 8" watercolour and ink on watercolour board mounted to a cradled wood board. These pink orchids can be found in my Etsy shop!
When I started my art journey just over 6 years ago I worked primarily with pencil and acrylic paint. After some experimentation I slowly switched over to using mostly watercolours and ink. Part of the reason I switched over was because watercolours are far easier to travel with and paper is easier to carry around than a canvas. lol This summer I am revisiting acrylics. I have a pile of canvases collecting dust and my paint is slowly drying up so I figure I have some acrylic based work to do. After such a long break I have found that I work a little differently with the way I mix and combine colours as well as their application. I am pleased with the results and will continue playing with acrylic and canvas throughout the summer. This pointe shoe image is one I have used before. The first painting was done with black India ink and white ink on paper. It is interesting for me to see the differences between mediums as well as how my style alters itself in relation to medium.
This acrylic painting is titled "Acrylic Grishko 1" (I know, super original) and is 8" by 10" acrylic on canvas. I have it listed in my Etsy shop with all my other dance themed paintings!
You may have noticed that a few of my videos feature a prickly little Hedgehog. This little friend is Robert, and yes she is a girl. Robert lives a privileged life. She sleeps and lounges in a blanket with multiple doors, tunnels/vents and has two rooms to run around in. She is trained to poop in a box (most days) and is sometimes smarter than I want to give her credit for. This video features some of her more mischievous moments!
You may also notice that her head is a little crooked. Almost exactly a year ago she had what we think was a stroke. She couldn't walk properly and was presenting symptoms associated with wobbly Hedgehog syndrome (yep, that's a thing.) I was scared she was dying and for a few days she barely ate or moved. After about a week she was walking slowly but crooked and since then has made a full recovery...except for her lopsided little ears. She has not had any more episodes so I don't think she is a wobbly hedgehog, which is a relief. Her crookedness just gives her character! lol
Summer is finally officially here and I hope I will be spending most of it at the cabin! We took a three day weekend this past week and headed up to my favorite place. I spent most of the weekend relaxing and hanging out with wild animals rather than drawing but I feel fresh and inspired now!
This little butterfly painting is from a photo we took of our temporary butterfly friend! We were sitting out in the hot sun swatting flies (I was probably complaining) when a butterfly landed on my toe. It then flew over and landed on Sebastian's finger. It was really windy so this little butterfly kept blowing away and then flying back to sit on my hand. He hung out with us for at least 5 minutes while I tried to get him to sit on a flower and Sebastian took as many photos as possible! Out of the 40 photos we took four of them were awesome. So upon returning home I decided to paint this friendly little butterfly.
This painting is 6" by 8" watercolour and ink on watercolour board mounted to a black cradled wood board. You can find it in my Etsy shop!
