So the universe isn't a happy place all the time but we can imagine it so....

So the thing is there is such a thing as too bright. I had to knock down the brightness of the books and darken the hat so as to emphasize what I wanted to emphasize. The best thing about a still life is they don't move. The effect I want to capture is a sense of wonder and magick and the feeling of cozy tea parties and 'anything can happen'.

Charcoal

Charcoal is a layering and push and pull just like any other medium. I began this in class but got bogged down and had to finish it at home. The highlights are quite developed and there is a sense of rest that I like. Charcoal is a soft medium both in actuality and in feel. There is a warmth to charcoal that is soft and makes one want to know more about the subject.

Samhain

This is a shivery sort of piece. I continued with the layering in of color and tried to keep a sense of 'Harry Potter' brightness about it. The Raven is pulled from a painting  I have done and I made him 'real'. My background is a bit muddy yet but hope to solve that problem on Teusday. My hat is as I see it all satin and elegant. The darks are alizarin and french ultramarine and the lighter tone is alizarin with cad orange and touch of french ultramarine and white.  Just a touch of white to lighten. To give one more layer I used cad orange and alizarin and a touch of cad red hue. with a tiny bit of white. I sort of drug that here and there. The candle strick is a bit of this and that layered and blocked with the flat of the brush to give a sense of reflection. most likely I will go back and knock down the brightness of the bottom book and shade the pages a bit more.

This is going to be a fun painting. It is that time of year with the swirl of fall and the hint of the otherworld in the air.  This a is time for remembering our year of work and challenges and for remembering our loved ones. So I assembled the elements from things I had at home. The hat was given me by my son who always thought his mom a bit magical. The books are favorites that  were bought from a small shop in Virginia called the Daedelus. The drape, a piece of crazy quilting I had started from remnants of kids clothes, and the candlestick part of a set given me by my favorite aunt. And the Raven, my own work from a photo taken on the best trip I had ever taken with my husband which is saying something because they are always great. The underpainting I an developing completely as possible since I want this to be a slowly built layered construct. Kathryn thinks it is a shame we coverour lovely warm siena underpaintings and I agree!

The second day of Bison painting

I think this is at the yucky stage. The magic hasn't happened yet but it will.

"And the Raven greets the Morning"

When you know you have done good work there is not other feeling like it in the world. I finished the Raven painting and I was satisfied. We tried a lignin treatment but that was a non issue. SO I began again and worked the old fasshioned way a step at a time. The post the bird was sitting on was a gnarly thing with lots of whorls and broken light. Trying to be as painterly as possible I brushed ochres and cad red and siena with touches of blue. The raven needed only a few more violets and blues to be complete and the grass was a matter of push and pull until the right feeling had been accomplished.