Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Painting #352 - Jan 11 - What a nice day, got to watch a great video plus paint.

I started my day just like usual, I made the coffee (a must), and decided to watch the video I received the other day, on slab building and texturing and making clay stamps, wow, what a great video, I really felt that I learned a lot, now, when I get my ceramic studio set up, I can do some of that, I have the kilns, I have the clay, I also have the potters wheels, now I just need some lights and some electric outlets so I can plug my wheels in, I'm ready to try this again, I did some throwing several years ago, at the Art Center of Battle Creek, since then I haven't had the energy, I had to work a 3rd shift factory job for over 5 years, that was because the window factory I worked at went bankrupt, it's crappy having to go out and find another job at 54, the only jobs available are 2nd and 3rd shifts, not my favorite after 22 years on first, what a come down! Plus, having to work with some of those 30 something women, who still thought they were in High School, not pleasant, it sure wasn't fun. So, when the factory closed and moved another hour plus away (I was already driving 40 min away), that made up my mind to not take the opportunity they offered to transfer, that's pretty much when I decided to make my art my job, so I started teaching watercolor, I'd been teaching china painting, and I had taught pastels before, so I wasn't new to teaching, I really love my job now, then last year, when I started this blog, I decided to try to make myself paint every day, that's worked, I am painting everyday, but now it's time for a little rest, just to catch up my relaxation a bit, I really wouldn't want to play with clay all day, and then try to paint a painting too, so I didn't play with the clay, but now I'm really getting the bug, I really need to make some jewelry too, and that also isn't painting, but it is art. Well, enough of that, now on with the painting.

This painting is one I started tonight at the watercolor class in Sturgis, I was demonstrating on paper, but the paper was much larger than I knew I could finish, besides, next class they will be working to finish their paintings, and I'll want the one I started to show them how to finish it. So, while they were painting theirs (after I had mine at a stage and was waiting for them to finish or catch up), I decided to get the Claybord out and see if I couldn't get a painting ready so I didn't have so much to work on at home, I think I did pretty well, I had about 1/2 or 3/4 of an hour in it at class, then I have about an hour and a half here at home, I actually completed it just a bit after 11:00 p.m. (since I don't get home until 9:10 or so, and I hadn't eaten dinner yet, I did eat before I started the painting), I think that's pretty good, I may actually get to bed before 12:00 a.m.(and that's very good).

Since this is on Claybord, it's very smooth, I usually try to lay on a coat of paint rather wet, to give the board some tooth, it helps the layers of paint that go on later. After that is dry, I then started to fine tune the buildings, I don't think the building is the focal point, now, I did at first, but this has become a tree painting. I really enjoyed painting the tree and this went fairly quickly, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

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