The Surprise

This is my latest painting in the class I'm taking with Wyanne. *waving at Wyanne!* Ooh, I got busted recently. She visited my blog and read my little comment about using the last painting (Scarred: see last post) as a substitute for the assignment to do THIS painting. Ha! She knew I was just kidding, though.  ;)

We were to paint whatever the word surprise meant to us. That was the assignment. Oh, that one had me stumped. I even went so far as to Google the word surprise just to get some ideas... pathetic, I know. But I started thinking about recent events and little surprises. And here's what I came up with:

I've met some awesome people on the internet. And starting tomorrow, as a matter of fact, a very special friend is launching a new artist's site called the Rabbit's Den. It is going to be so cool! And it's not just for artists. It's also for writers and poets...just check it out! So, here is what I was trying to show in my painting:  As I dance through my life, down my little path, every once in a while I come across some very special people. And this friend has certainly been a very welcome and pleasant surprise!

Scarred

This painting was in response to an art prompt by my good friend Rabbit. The prompt was actually a music video by Christina Perri singing the song "Jar of Hearts" (great song!). There was so much inspiration from that video alone...I just started playing around with paints and papers and ended up with this.  :)

So while I've been working on this and having so much fun with it, I should have been working on my next painting assignment for my class...it has me totally stumped and I'm now looking for something else to use as an excuse not to start that painting... That's not totally true, but I am scratching my head over the assignment. Happily, my sister is in town visiting and I can put off thinking about it for a few more days at least.

If I can't come up with any other ideas, I wonder if my instructor will let me use this as my painting...may be worth a try!

Blink

Yes, I know you've seen this before. A couple of versions, even... I'm taking another painting class from Wyanne called Tough Love. It's challenging (that's the tough part) and she is really a very patient teacher (that's the love).

One of the first things she did was have us look at a painting we had done and ask us what we would change about it if we could. I had done a different version of this one for a good friend in an art trade. I was going to paint a version for myself but hadn't started it yet.  My plan was just to do a painting similar to his but she suggested I look at it differently.

So I thought about it and had absolutely no ideas...lol! She gave me a few and I liked her idea of a pop art look. Then she told me about a technique that she had learned and showed the class how to do it so I tried that too. Of course she did it much better but I did give it a go. ;) Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it. At least the assignment is over and I have my painting. The deal with this class is the painting isn't finished until she says it is. I haven't heard back from her yet so I think it's finished. We shall see...

Dazzled

Dazzled, 7" x 9" Mixed Media on Watercolor Paper



"Still, what I want in my life

is to be willing

to be dazzled --"

from The Ponds by Mary Oliver



Dreaming

8 x 8, mixed media on canvas

For J, thank you for being you...

Heavy

Heavy

by Mary Oliver

That time

I thought I could not

go any closer to grief

without dying

I went closer,

and I did not die.

Surely God

had His hand in this

as well as friends.

Still, I was bent,

and my laughter,

as the poet said,

was nowhere to be found.

Then my friend Daniel

(brave even among the lions),

"It's not the weight you carry

but how you carry it --

books, bricks, grief --

it's all in the way

you embrace it, balance it, carry it

when you cannot, and would not,

put it down."

So I went practicing.

Have you noticed?

Have you heard

the laughter

that comes, now and again,

out of my startled mouth?

How I linger

to admire, admire, admire,

the things of this world

that are kind, and maybe

also troubled --

roses in the wind,

the sea geese on the steep waves,

a love

to which there is no reply?