I Must Confess...

How the heck did
THIS happen? No clue!

I must confess...

I'm really terrible at taking care of my art supplies, especially my oil paints. You would think by now I'd learn my lesson, but nope, I continue to discard caps, puncture holes in tubes and let my supplies get destroyed. I guess I just get so caught up in creating that I don't see how Im ruining things. I do notice however when I go to use them the next day. Oof..I get agitated but at this stage I'm just learning to accept that this is par for the course of being creative for me personally. These are, without a doubt, the most offensive supplies in my arsenal. Some of these paints are so expensive....I don't even want to think about how fast they are drying in their tubes.

Even a nutcracker
won't help get this top off.

Please don't judge.

Offensive!

Its all cool though...random
heart squeezed out from one of the offensive tubes today.

Indian Silver in progress

Aside from the misuse of art supplies there is this issue with chestnuts going orange. Anyone reading this that has tried to pastel/paint a chestnut horse has gotten to this annoying stage and has probably though, "What now?" I felt this Indian Silver would lend itself well at this "offensive orange" stage to a wonderful online tutorial since he's being an absolute creep! (Yeah...they get testy on me too so if you are reading this thinking, "Wow, that Mini Haggis was awesome! She's great!" Please know that at this very moment as Im trying to figure out how to drop back this awful color and splotchiness Im thinking, "Man, I suck at this.")

So, in the next few blog posts I'll discuss how this color turns from orange to a proper chestnut color. Don't worry if you've painted a chestnut and gotten here. This color IS in the chestnut hair color just not so prominent. Steps coming which will show you how to tone it back.


Random desk shot.
From this angle all looks calm and under control

"The Ribbon V"
Graphite and Watercolor on archival bristol.

"As a person abandons worn-out clothes and acquires new ones, so when the body is worn out a new one is acquired by the Self, who lives within." ~Bhagavad Gita

Summer Moved On

A sculpture by Becky Turner
painted in mixed media by me.

The very last days of this incredible summer are still with us, but only for a week or two more. Today we watched as weather reports predicted a hurricane tomorrow. Although hurricanes are never as bad here as they are in the southern states, a hurricane-like storm would really mean the official end to summer and swimming.

The water today had a chill to it. The chill of autumn slowly setting in. Francesco and I swam anyway. By next week the pool will probably be closed for good. Summer is by far my most favorite time of the year and I approach its ending with much sadness. I'm savoring the last days.

I tried to pull some pottery this week, but my mind is wandering terribly on other things like the last days of summer and two models I have been concentrating very hard on. One model capturing my interest is a Newsworthy model in bay tobiano and the other is a Rayne resin in chestnut. I had anticipated selling both, but the Newsworthy has become a guinea pig of sorts as I try to find a new matte spray that rivals the Citadel formula. Sadly nothing (so far) comes close.

The Rayne was scheduled for sale this week too, but the more I work on him the more I and am struck with thoughts of a warmblood horse I used to ride down at the barn and I think he may be staying in my own personal collection. Rayne in chestnut looks strikingly similar to that horse. His name slips me at the moment. I honestly didn't have a love affair with the beast. He was unmanageable once we went out of eye sight of the barn. I hated when they would bring him down the isle for me to ride. He was cranky. He was slow and tripped even at a walk, but he had the most beautiful chestnut coat I had ever seen. I've been trying to recreate that beautiful chestnut coat on Rayne as I experiment with some water soluble oils. They have been fun to work with and they are helping to ease the end of a good summer. I'm trying to look forward to cooler days spent at the third floor studio desk playing with rich, enticing color but memories of summer linger.

Love his voice.