Self-Portrait

Based off the elegant profile portraits of Bernard Boutet do Monvel.

The Carpenter

It was a day of much progress as I've added more graphic information to the side. This is one of those pieces that hasn't settled well with me EVER. But I'm loving it more everyday.

Copper Fence...

Shrubbery

I'm having a blast with this shrubbery painting experiment, which has ended up so much easier than I expected. All I've done is layer four colors of green--darkest to lightest--in a patchwork and drawn in leaf-shapes. Further refining and adding of flowers is next!

Cochineal

Today a friend brought to me cochineal beetles to do my first dye, something I've been interested in doing for awhile since carmine, my favorite red paint is made from cochineal.

WIth an alum mordant soaked into the silk the scarf was submerged in a bath of the beetles. The dye is made exclusively from the female beetle which are collected off cactus in Mexico and dried.

As a painter, it is incredibly important for me to understand exactly what all of my materials are made of.

A new obsession has started!

Working

These are photos my friend took of me last December.

The Convalescent.

Today I am working on "The Convalescent", a piece I have recently begun. As with every piece, it seems to be painting itself far away from my original plan. As usual, I have the option to focus, or "go with the flow", even if it veers away completely from the plan I made originally. Pictured below you will find the original blue print. It includes doberman pinschers, a strange veiled figure, a simple four-post bed, and a room that is cold, like a hospital.
Part of my problem in making art is my unwillingness to focus. I get excited by a "lead", and move forward, completely abandoning the map. Maybe it has something to do with being Californian. Regardless, I am at a place where I continuously work on the bed and the walls, avoiding the true subject.

Will the piece be dreary, or fabulous? I am inclined to be dreary, but I want to be fabulous. As I noted earlier, a tarot reading told me I'm dishonest with my work. It is true I continue to mourn about Renata, which this piece is about. But Renata, pictured below, obviously wasn't dreary, or in any way the convalescent that she is now.

If this is a portrait of a person's spirit, it certainly shouldn't be sad. But I do want to own that her life is a tragedy.