Moby Dick Art CAN Cause Nightmares!

Okay, Robin (http://nothing-like-it.blogspot.com/) I will STOP boring you with my old dusty unchanged post and bore you with a brand new post!

From this (ick):

To this: Canvas collaged, antiqued, and painted:


To the final product (18" x 24"):

I have been in Florida visiting the fam and I was flipping through one of Mom's decorating books and rediscovered a living room that I've always LOVED. The focal point was a huge wooden folk artsy whale over the fireplace. The idea struck me to paint my own giant whale... the more I thought (or rather obsessed) about it, I decided I wanted to collage the back of a pre-painted canvas with the pages of Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

My first step was to practice on a smaller scale. I covered up my first art class project with pages from an OLD Moby Dick novel and then stained it for an antique look and painted my Moby on it. I just love him. I do.

First Art Class Project (Ick):

To "Little Moby" 9x12:

My second step was to take that stupid 18" x 24" "Little Boxes" painting that just was NOT working for me and collage it with more pages from Moby Dick. I left certain areas of paint peeking through for color and rustic charm. I then stained it and painted the background and finally added Big Moby with acrylics. I love him, too, but I must admit that staring at him for hours induced a nightmare about a whale in a giant pool that was chasing me around.

So now that my nightmares have apparently ebbed, I will continue working on another painting that is just bugging the crap out of me. I have NO idea which way to go with it... any suggestions? I even thought of mosaic but I'm afraid it is beating a dead horse and I should just paint over it!

Improving Ugly Art?

Okay, after my red wine meets paint incident (see previous post) I decided to drag out the painting and work on it.

I don't really like traditional floral paintings, but I did have this vision of a funky, psychedelic 60's sort of garden. With eyeballs thrown in, of course. An improvement? Since only I can be the judge of what I like and what I don't in my own work, I call it a success so far.

The balance and color is not fixed, yet. I plan on going back in and darkening areas and taking out a lot of the big blue areas. I want the overall look to be pleasing and not get lost in a bunch of little details that detract from the whole.

In the bottom pic, it is flipped. You can see a little of the red flower peeking at the top left corner and a little of the yellow flower in the bottom right corner.

My personal note of the night is I'm in a hurry because I ordered a literal MOUNTAIN of mulch and my hubby has said no less than three times the last hour how I need to be out there getting rid of that mulch! Watch out flower garden, here I come!



Renee :)

More Ugly Art....

Hey All! I've just drug my reluctant self back from the beach and I realized that it has been almost a month since I've posted anything.

Here is a pic of me and the hubby on a dolphin tour (that he did NOT want to be on.) No, I don't wear my hair in a pompadour, I do actually have eyelashes, and I am not a man (nor have I ever been a man.)

I'm sure my millions and millions of blog fans have been anxiously biting their nails in anticipation of what kind of art mishaps I've spawned so...

First off is the work-in-progress of "Little Boxes on the Hillside" named after some old folk song my little brother use to sing (we're a whole big family of dorks.) I think my idea was fine but I missed the execution somewhere.

This is on a 18 x 24 canvas and something is just wrong with the scale, the colors, everything. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep plugging away at and add more dimension and detail to the houses or just paint over it. Right now, I'm heavily leaning towards just painting over it.

My second mishap comes from apparently a night where I had too much red wine and decided to drag out the paint. All I can say is kids, Don't Drink and Paint or this can happen to you. This will DEFINITELY be painted over.

And finally, here is the one set of paintings that I actually like. This started off as my last art class project in which we were to paint a diptych. I think the "real" idea behind it is that they are suppose to be viewed together to make sense, but in my art nothing really makes a lot of sense so I think they can be viewed together or separately and be equally as strange.

I am not finished yet (the bird in particular) but I don't want to overwork them. I want to call this set "Sleepwalking." I think I love them so much because of the creepy, surreal feel. I wonder where they're going?

Until tomorrow or next month (I have a LOT of yard work to catch up on!)

Renee :)

Swimsuit Anxiety

Okay, I must admit I've been on cloud nine for the past few days because I went to our local Stir Fry Cafe which showcases local artists and sold THREE paintings right on the spot! It's not that I need the affirmation.... Okay I need it. I love it. I want some more of it.

I don't want to fall into the trap of reproducing the paintings that I've sold just because they've proven to be marketable. I think I need to force myself to keep focusing on all the new ideas I've got, whether they prove to be "successful" or whether they end up hanging on my walls forever. It doesn't matter... I think the most important aspect of art is that it releases an emotion upon the world.... which leads me to my next painting.

"Swimsuit Season" is not a self-portrait (after all, I'm brunette) but if I could encapsulate my swimsuit anxiety emotion into a human form, it would look something very close to this beauty. If only I could find a flesh colored body suit that would hide my fresh new 2009 cellulite and boost my drooping butt cheeks.

And I am kind of embarassed to admit that I've grown a little fond of my art class project, even though abstract to me is just kind of... well... abstract.... I still think it looks like a giant finger but my hubby asked if it was a cat. A cat?

My personal note of the day is that I'm just going to leave you with the image of my drooping butt cheeks ;)

Renee

More Art Class Madness

I love my art class... I really do... but it is amazing to me how ugly my art class projects are. This week, the object was to very quickly make a collage and then paint the collage onto a canvas that had been very vibrantly and randomly painted. Here is my effort thus far: It looks like a giant finger...



Aside from the class disaster, I had this idea that I wanted to paint my little golfer hubby smiling at a great golf shot in the distance. Yes, my walls are sponged yellow. It was a decorating mistake that I made 7 years ago and I just haven't had the heart (or time) to repaint yet.

You've seen the creepy clown before but I went back and repainted the tree, the sky, and brightened the colors of the clown's costume. I think he looks better now. He was pleased that he got a make-over and he gave me a balloon.

And finally this is the pic that I've had in my mind for a couple of days so yesterday I started it. I REALLY like how it turned out, but I'm not sure if I'm going to leave the dots on the tail or paint over them. My thought on this one is "I'm Outta Here."

My personal note of the day is that I went and saw Wolverine with my son today and have decided that I don't mind spending a couple of hours watching scantily clad, buff men oiled up and misted with faux sweat. Well worth my ten bucks, friends.

Renee ;)

Now it is just funny....

At this point, my "art" from class has gone from bad to just plain ridiculous. Granted, it is an ABSTRACT mixed media collage class... but for the life of me I just can't make any good excuses for this. The first pic is how it began life (as two poorly represented cocktail umbrellas) and the second pic is how it ended up after class last week.

In defense of the class, it is a LOT of fun to just go sit around with three different radios blasting away on various stations with all those random animals running around and occasionally sneaking up behind you and scaring the life out of you. I imagine that must be how it feels to do 'shrooms. But I do love it and plan to keep taking classes, if for nothing else than to see exactly HOW absolutely absurd my work turns out!

So when I got home last week from class, I REALLY felt the need to start work on something that was more "me." Again, I always have a color combination in my mind but no idea of what I am going to end up painting. Actually, this painting started off looking very female body-partish and far more sexual than I planned so I had to adapt it for a broader audience. It still looks like the blossoming of life to me in a weird abstract sort of way. Anyway, no matter. I really like it and feel like it's a Renee piece whereas the collage I feel has absolutely no link to my soul (although I do like the nude dude I stuck in the far left corner.)

My personal note of the day is that I bought my son a bike with all these daydreams of us packing up, taking off to some beautiful greenways with our backpacks filled with snacks, bonding, laughing, and enjoying the beautiful weather. The reality? My son (a.k.a. the tater tot) has been surgically attached to his computer and actually referred to the beautiful new Trek bike as an "instrument of torture." I think I even heard his little feet in his room doing a rain dance this morning. Is that thunder I hear? Ah... kids these days.

Have a great one!

Renee :)

Eat More Sushi.... Or Else....

I think I am going to submit these paintings to our local Stir Fry Cafe which has an "Art Menu" which features local artists on display around the restaurant. It is a cool place and a really great idea. I have worked and reworked and reworked them until I finally am satisfied. These are the quickest works to ever go out my door because I usually keep making changes for weeks, but I think sometimes you can work TOO much on a painting and it loses its freshness. Or at least I'm going to tell myself that.

SO I hope the art rep likes these okay. The owl is a little more folk arty than I usually do but I think he's sexy so that's all that counts.

I wanted to do a couple of my tree paintings/sculptures but they take FOREVER to finish so I may start on some tomorrow to hopefully have finished before the month is out.

My personal note of the day is that I got my hair cut and I think I actually like it this time! I have to wash it and try to style it myself before I will know but so far so good... I didn't come out looking like Grandma on holiday.

Have a great weekend :)

Renee