Trying to Get Good Thoughts

This past month has been a sort of whirlpool. My daughter Yael and family are off on what I call The Grand Trip. They decided to take a half year "time off"! So my thoughts are with them, and thanks to good WiFi we get daily updates.

Also taking care of their 2 house cats! Quite a balancing act with Lily my dog!

Not to talk about what's happening on our Southern border and Northern border. I really need just good thoughts!

Nepal Annapurna Circuit

Reminder about how small we are

Sunset in the Philippines

As for my artwork, well it's been dragging. Haven't really been able to give myself that big PUSH.

I had started a few canvases a few weeks ago and wanted to work on them at home but just didn't get to them except to veil them with a light color. Wanted to make a new start on them and then felt that I completely ruined them. On one I did make a few marks which made it worse. I could give lessons on how to ruin paintings.

WIP

Start 

After this start, I veiled with a very light yellow and white. Made some marks, mainly dark. Forgeot  to take a photo before work yesterday!

WIP

20 x 28 " cut canvas mounted on cardboard

oils  cold wax collage

How I got here I have no idea. Covered it with black, not really black but a mix. Scraping and adding. Collage pieces. Think I will run some filters in Topaz Studio to see a new direction. I like their abstraction filter to simplify shapes. Their conceptual filter sometimes adds a punch of some color outside the range. Have to find a better solution for the righthand side. That was thin nylon with some blue scribbles. and it's peeling off. Critique and suggestions welcome!

Mythology a Modern Take

Our monthly challenge is a sort of mashup based on any mythological story. Sort of a modern-day interpretation. Decided on the story of Perseus and Madusa. My mashup, interpretation, is based on the fact that Perseus had to use a magic shield in order not to look at Medusa's face. Wonder Woman is my hero in the fight against domestic violence! I used domestic violence as an example of any social issue, it could be violence against animals, environmental, racial etc. On the shield, I placed some images over the face of Medusa. Well, the moral of the story is that we shouldn't hide issues in a mirror but face them head-on. A little far-fetched!

For this project, I made a digital composite in Photoshop and really enjoyed the process!

Don't hide behind a Mirror

Digital Composite

11 5/8 x 16 5/8 "

A3

New Starts and Paper Doll Tweak

Since I am having trouble big time with my lightbox on blogger I am going to try something new. Which didn't work so although they are clickable they may open too large to handle? Since I don't know what browser you use I can't know what you will see.

I Have Finished Playing Here

300 gm gessoed watercolor paper

oils and cold wax

Collage

click to enlarge

I added a few more dolls to obscure some of the prominent ones

and pushed back one on the left bottom side 

See previous 

WIP 20 x 28" Cut canvas wrapped on board Collage  Oils  Cold Wax  Oil Sticks

WIP

19.5 x 16.5

Cut Canvas wrapped on Board

Collage Oils Cold Wax and Oil Sticks