Paint update number 739, and Texas if you're getting bored with the paint.

Acrylics...hmmmm.



They are tricky with kids around, not very forgiving of interruptions...What do I do with the rapidly drying mixed colour on the palette when I have to get up? And then there are the longer interruptions, I am too parsimonious to just let it harden and chip it off, yet how do I keep it viable if I walk away for a bit....



Then there is the water issue, I have to think my way around this...you see there is a drought here, though you wouldn't know it with all the rain we're having, the reservoirs are only about at 40% and once it stops raining it won't rain again for months....They actually have ships bringing water into BCN from France and further south in Spain....and I keep having to wash off the palette and brushes...I think I can rest the brushes in a tray of water, but the palette??



Hmmmmm.



The blue and orange was declared a disaster and I painted over it...which looks better, I can still see the ghosts of the clothes that youngest made and we collaged on through the upper layer and it has an interesting texture as well as flickers of the under-painted colours showing through. I am going to do a glaze over it and see if I can bring up the ghostly women a bit more....possibly a light green....we'll see.

The large yellow is done I think, I applied a minuscule touch of blue to one corner, it needed some weight and balance there....I am not sure it will show in the photo at all....



My mother is thinking, "You are just like your grandmother." That's another post.

The blue and red, I keep staring at, I like it a lot, but it lacks focus. We'll have to see. To see a photo, scroll down. It hasn't changed.


The plain semi-obedient one I am taking tangentially (read kinda disobediently), I built up a thick layer of medium for a frame within the painting, like one of those old masters jobbies,

and I have painted on a layer of yellow ochre, when that dries I'll start glazing it down to a darker tone...

I shall have to do something around the frame as well as within it....we'll see.



This final one was simply to play, and I initially produced the most ghastly seascape, like something those grandmothers in trailer parks make...*whew* I wiped that off....



It is turning into the most obedient of the lot, the collage items I stuck on are disturbingly aligned, and the whole thing is weighted a bit far left...I keep tipping over when I look at it...I am sure I can fix that though....




Maybe I will end up being a granny painting kitch in a trailer park, you see, I already have an in. I actually had the privilege of living in a trailer park in rural Texas for a few months one summer, I got the most kick-*ss radio station from Louisiana in the early mornings, made friends with the scorpion under the bath mat and got chiggers. Urg.


The guy in the next trailer had had lung transplant surgery, used to work on the oil rigs, smoked like a chimney, and - I kid you not - painted nudes onto black velvet.



Strange, but true.



Road runners are the most amazing birds.