Social Distancing

The mandate for social distancing to help contain the spread of Covid19 means I am adjusting to working from home, and getting two more hours each day that I used to have to devote to commuting to and from work. Now I can start my day an hour earlier, and end an hour earlier, so that gives me two hours to paint or take care of household chores. I managed to get some time last week to create these abstracts. These are all alcohol ink on clayboard.

Gwen's Goblin WIP

This is a work in progress. Gwen made the head last Christmas (or was it the year before?) and we finally put together the body, made feet and hands, and gave the goblin a leaf to munch on. The blue hair nicely matches the facial colors. The next step is put put on some underwear and clothes. I think she is doing an amazing job!

 

Encaustic 9x12

Silver Clay Certification

I completed these projects to get certified to teach At Clay silver techniques. I learned so much about both silver jewelry creation and silver clay manipulation.

 

new paintings

I have been experimenting with Open Acrylics, which are workable for a very long time like oils, but clean up with water and dry like acrylics. They are really nice to work with. The first painting is a portrait of a cocker spaniel named Gracie, and was painted as a gift for my friend and sister.

The second is a painting of Tiara walking in the deep snow. I'm not sure about this one - it is still a work in progress and may need a significant overhaul before I can consider it done.

Felted Borzoi

I finally got around to trying my hand at felting a borzoi. This is about three inches tall. I spent the whole afternoon on it, and left it on the table for two minutes while I went to find some beads for eyes, and Tiara managed to steal it off the table and started chewing on it. Then I got it a bit wet, hoping for soft curls, and I ended up with frizz. How frustrating! I think it turned out OK, though. Still needs eyes - the beads weren't the right size.

right side

left side

new work

I have been playing with the new Open Acrylics by Golden, and thought it was about time I shared some of my attempts. The Open acrylics are lovely to work with - they are designed to allow more fluid working, and feel more like oil paints. I have been trying to work more impasto, although it is hard to let go and nto strive for realism. The first is a generic 'zoi image I found on the web. I apologise to the owner who took the gorgeous original that I found so inspiring - I forgot to record whose dog it was.

This one is of Tiara. Both paintings are small (8x10 on canvas).

I have also been playing with encaustics again, and finished this landscape (8x10 on 2" cradled wood).
 

Thansk for looking!