What's Shaking?

"Discordant"

Oil on illustration board

4"x6" 

"A Gray Afternoon in 1988"

Oil and graphite on illustration board

4"x6"

Hm, I sense a theme here.  Waxing nostalgic perhaps.  It makes me smile to see the younger set referring back to the 80's for their fashion and style inspirations, but it also makes me feel old and curmudgeonly.  Anyhoo, these two lovely little ladies will be available in my Etsy shop this Friday, August 3rd at 2pm central.

I don't really get super excited about the Olympics, but I do like watching the opening ceremonies.  I like a little pageantry and pomp as well as anyone, I suppose.  I really did enjoy Friday's event; good music, cool visuals--it was fun.  I think that's what I came away with anyway, a sense of fun and good-will.  Isn't that what this is supposed to be about anyway?  I wish it would last longer than a couple of weeks every few years, though.  We need more of that feeling in our world.  AND I discovered some new music (I'm always excited when that happens).  During the filmed sequence of Beckham on the speedboat with the torch--which I thought looked awesome, by the way---I heard something vaguely familiar-sounding playing in the background.  I turned to tha interwebs (which reminds me of the horribly frustrating times I had trying to identify bands and songs in the 80's and 90's.  Just one way in which my life has improved, haha) and discovered it was someone I'd never heard of:  David Holmes.  The song is "I Heard Wonders".  Here's a video someone made with footage from Bullitt:

It's a really good song, makes me think a little of The Ocean Blue, a little Echo and the Bunnymen, maybe a teeny bit Jesus and Mary Chain.  So yeah, I dig it.

In Progress

I've been working on this painting in tiny bits and pieces for months.  It's difficult to truly get any headway when I'm only painting about an hour every week, and working on ten different pieces at the same time.  That is how I work though: I could never work on just one piece until completion.  That would drive me nuts.  I'm just pulled in a lot of different directions right now (right now?  How about the last 3 years?):  day job, kids, house stuff, and I'm putting together a benefit art auction to raise money for my friend Leslie.  I have to say that focusing has never been one of my strong points.  Look!  Something shiny!!  And there I go, veering off onto yet another fascinating path with multiple forks into others.  Lost in a maze of my own design.

I'm sure I've gone on about this before, but when I'm driving in the car or while I'm making dinner or even when I'm on the phone I daydream about painting.  I feel like I have a million glorious ideas for composition and color and subject matter, a whole universe of 'em.  Then I absolutely stall in front of the easel, unable to even start on one of them.  I've tried a different approach by sketching ideas out, trying to have something there in hand when I start a new painting, something to refer to.  It just doesn't work! I lose interest and the sparkling idea I had just fades;  becoming dull and boring and non-sparkling.  Argh.  It's frustrating.  It's like everything is better in my head and I can't translate it into something tangible.  And don't get me started on my actual dreams; so vivid and real and begging to be painted.

I know other painters must have similar frustrations.  I wish I knew how more of them deal with it.  I'm sure not having time (or making more time) to paint is contributing to my blockage.  Maybe I need an artist's retreat.  That sounds lovely.  I'd probably spend the time trying to catch up on sleep, though!