Is it Done Yet?

.Rower
2'X4' oil on carved wood

Another go at Rower. So much more interesting. Oh how I struggled. But- so often, the struggle adds such fabulous layers and depth to a painting- especially oil. Is it done? Maybe. But I'm setting it aside for a bit. A time out for this one. I do like the flat images mingling with the three dimentional/realistic ones. Been playing with this more and more in the last year.

Meanwhile there is a chicken in my bathtub. It had a bath, yes, and now is staying out of the mud (besides what it self-generates). We are off to Cloverdale early tomorrow. I have some pieces in a juried show there and Benjamin is entering his now clean chicken in the citrus fair. Wish us luck!

a close-up of the carved tree

The Rower and Other Challenges like Religion

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Rower
2'X4'

Wouldn't it be nice if just because a painting pushed our abilities it was also a masterpiece? Sometimes in the past I have felt this to be the case but not this time. I worked from an older sketch I had. What works when it is only 4" X 8" doesn't not necessarily work when it is 2' X 4'. Ironically shrinking it down again for the blog makes it look better again. Perhaps I will go back into the painting in a few months or perhaps it will grow on me. Parts of The Rower make me happy. The child God rowing in the sky over wood-grain Buddhist clouds. The feet (which are my squat little feet).


My son entered Saturday school and its been in my brain- I always saw a lot of really great kids come out of various religions weekend youth groups, but then again it is religion in all its crazy doctrine and all the good and bad that religious groups have done in the past. All that history sure muddies the spiritual waters. And I am wary. I've never painted God. Goodness gracious why take up that one? Next I'll be doing illustrations for kids bible books with old men Gods and God Light (actually there have been some awesome religious illustrations not to mention..oh that entire history of Italian Renaissance art!). But it snuck up on me-really. I didn't realize the child might be God until after I'd painted it. And no i don't think of God as a person at all yet to be anthropomorphic He got a bit sneaky this time, and I don't really mind. Oh and I am actually planning to paint a piece called Beware of God that will in fact have a surreal sort of Old Man God and god light as well!
Happy Roshashana!