It’s Friday!
After a full day of painting, I decided to clean my studio, and get ready for the month of June. So here’s to a new month of new beginnings, inspiration, and creativity.
Have a Great Weekend!
Angel Of Love by Rose Arizmendi (c) 2008- Collage/Combined Media
“Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”
–Joseph Addison
“Most of a woman’s depressions, ennuis, and wandering confusions are caused by a severely restricted soul-life in which innovation, impulse, and creation are restricted or forbidden. Women receive enormous impulse to act from the creative force.”
–Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“We don’t remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.”
–Linda Pastan
Busy Day
It’s been a very busy day and I am exhausted. I spent most of the afternoon finishing up this painting, and it feels good to be finally done.
Later, my husband and I watched a movie, and now I’m going to go to bed and get a good nights rest.
Woman Dreaming -Digital Charcoal/Oil – Combined Media – 12 X 12 inches
She dreams and weaves together the strands of her life, the past, present, and future. The woman sleeps serenely within the circle, the ancient symbol of the goddess, the womb, wholeness, unity, and infinity. While in the dream world; she builds a bridge between the earthly and mystical realms to heal the earth and her children. – Rose Arizmendi
Inspiration
I spent most of the day working in the studio and managed to get quite a bit done. I prepped a new canvas, and layered in more color on another work in progress.
As I was working, I kept thinking about the meaning behind the word “inspiration”. To inspire, bring about the arousal of the mind to unusual activity or creativity. What inspires creativity? Is it learning something new? I’m not sure what inspires creativity, however, when it strikes I feel excited and passionate about expressing it through color and line.
This evening the inspiration bug hit, and I worked on the digital collage below. The background was created by laying in some watercolor on a blank canvas, then I began painting the figure on a separate layer with watercolor & pastels. Next I merged the painted layers and added text.
Divine Mother by Rose Arizmendi (C) 2008 – Collage/Combined Media
“Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air – explode softly – and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth – boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either – not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with their imagination.”
Crows Everywhere
This morning I awoke to a calliope of sound coming from our front yard. As I peered out our bedroom window to see what all the ruckus was about, I saw a dozen or so American Crows perched on our sycamore trees. Above the trees a small hawk was being chased by some rather angry crows.
To say the least, the crows were very upset. Over the years I have learned to pay attention whenever I hear crows making a scene, and without question there’s usually something out of the norm happening.
Finally after 20 minutes or so everything returned to normal, and peace & quiet returned to our sleepy little neighborhood.
Communion – Combined Media – 10 X 10 inches
- The common American crow is one of the most intelligent of all birds. It is one of only a few species of bird that has been observed modifying and using tools to obtain food.
- It can communicate warning, threat, taunting, and cheer to other crows by varying the “caw” sound it makes.
- Its cries of warning are specific enough that some animals other than crows are also able to use them as signals of dangerous predators.
The Tibetans believe the crow so sacred that watching their actions can predict an outcome in your life.
The Lenape Indians of Delaware also believed in a Many Colored Crow or Rainbow Crow who selflessly brought fire to all the woodland creatures and he is black from burning himself on the trip.
Many of the Celtic goddesses were linked with the crow or raven; Badb, Macha, Nemain, Nantosuelta, and Tethra.
Work In Progress
Today I experimented with burnishing the painting below. I used a stainless steel spoon and applied it in a circular motion to the dried surface of the painting. This process makes the pigment shine, giving the painting a lacquered effect, which creates a rich luster and warm glow.
The paint must be completely dry before burnishing, I used this process on the plant pot, the womans eye, and the darker background areas. It gave the dark area of the eye a mysterious glow, which my camera did not capture. However, you can see the effect on the plant pot.
Tomorrow I plan on adding more layers of color and detail to the background, etc.
The image below is a close up photo of a portion of the painting.
Lady & Nature – Acrylic & Watercolor – 9 X 12 inches
“There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.” – Linda Hogan
“Everything in nature contains all the power of nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
Old Friends
My paint brushes are like old friends, and I hardly ever retire them. After each painting session I clean them thoroughly, gently shape the hairs back into place, and set them out to dry.
There are some which have lost their elasticity and frayed out from their metal ferrule. These are ideal for dry brush work.
Yesterday our favorite art store had a two-for-one sale on brushes and I replaced a couple of my older brushes with new ones. The brushes I replaced were over 25 years old. They are oldies but goldies, and they still have some life left in them before I move them into the dry brush bucket.
I just love these old brushes!
My Old Friends
Acrylics & Foil
I spent most of the day working with Golden acrylics and aluminum foil. The painting I am working on is a mask sculpture, three dimensional, mixed media on canvas. I tried to photograph a portion of the butterfly wing to show how I embossed designs, symbols, lines, and such on the foil.
After finishing the embossing, I mixed the golden fluid acrylics right on the foil surface, and using enough water to keep the paint thin, I brushed them lightly over the surface patterns.
The next photo shows a detailed image of the textured portion of the canvas. I used Gesso and heavy weight Golden Gel medium, along with tissue paper to achieve this look.
The Butterfly Maiden – photo of foil detail
The Butterfly Maiden -photo of texture detail
Out & About
Today, I went out to lunch with a close friend, which was wonderful. We also window shopped and visited our favorite book store. It was so relaxing to sit, laugh, and talk, instead of worrying about time constraints.
Herb Garden
“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
– Marcel Proust
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
– Anais Nin
“My friends are my estate.”
– Emily Dickinson
“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”
Painting Another Heart
I started another heart painting a couple of days ago. This is my third painting with a crystal heart as the main focal point. I can’t help myself, I feel drawn to paint this ancient symbol.
Throughout history, the heart symbol has been considered a religious icon. The ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the center of all consciousness, the center of life itself. For the Christians the heart represents hope, charity, and forgiveness.
For many others the heart was the center of thought, emotion, the soul, the center of one’s very being.
Celtic Heart – Combined Media – 12 X 12 inches
Collecting Owls
I began my love affair with owls many years ago when I was a child. Over the years I have collected, sketched and painted owls.
Recently, my neighbor passed away. She was 101 years old and also happened to be an avid collector of owls. I was pleasantly surprised to find out she was a fellow owl lover.
We will miss you Pauline. Thank you for all those wonderful conversations over the garden fence.
The Owl & The Moon- Pastel- Combined Media – 9 X 12 inches
“The crow wished everything was black, the owl, that every thing was white.” – William Blake
“In the Native American tradition, the owl is the totem for people born during the time of the Popping Trees Moon – the period between November 11th and December 10th. The time of year when owls may be often seen silently hunting at dusk, making use of their keen sight and excellent hearing. The deepening winter time is regarded as the time of coming into wisdom – a time for telling of experiences, storing memories and learning – hence its association with the owl – the bird of wisdom.” – Unknown