So...yeah.
I started getting back into painting much like one gets into a pool. A pinkie toe first, then a leg, then the other leg and finally a giant leap off the steps into the water. Pretty soon you're thinking a bunch of rambling thoughts that are kind like "woah! I'm in the pool!" and "holy crap it's cold but kind of awesome!"
At least that's how it's been for me.
The pinkie toe is a metaphor for testing out new materials, like the bright pink 'hipster-ish' painting. It was fun and challenging to make this. I used Golden flow acrylics, matte medium for transferring the image (first time I ever did that,) paint markers, Fiber paste, and ink.
It seemed that after I played around with new materials I just sort of got going again.
Anyway, the five pieces that you see here are the most important pieces that have gotten me to start working again.
The car pieces are my newest pieces. The three of them have transpired over the last week or so. They are about making amends with a past you cannot change and setting it free.
But they are also about painting a piece of my childhood that has remained vivid.
I take these car references and appropriate them using images from my travels and memory. I should note that the last truck painting is done in oil, glitter, and Pearlex powdered pigments. Glitter has a magical way of reminding you that it's okay not to be so serious all the time.
The study of the truck is done in watercolor -(I experimented with text but decided against it in the final piece )- and the blue van is a study for my next painting done in ink, sharpie, and watercolor.
Another reason why old cars are so fascinating for me to paint is because they are becoming a relic a past. Every year we get a little further and further away from our dependence on oil-ran cars. These cars I remember so thoroughly (I spent a lot of time in them) will be so exceptionally ancient by the time I am an old lady. The century of cars came and went. Sooner or later they will be absent from modernity. Maybe our great-grandkids will never experience them, who knows.
The next painting is based around relationships of family members with one another and how that changes in a different environment. I like the drawing, but the colors are really aggressive so I sort of stopped messing with it. For now, it is a study for a larger painting.
The last painting is in reference to Brian's Japan trip. He took an picture of a painted heart while traipsing about in Kyoto. I was so drawn to the cleverness and simplistic beauty that I adapted it and painted my own version for him.
The painting is made with acrylics. It is also heavily textured and layered with strips of cardboard and recycled paper.