Paintings and Sketches

 

Still Life, In these flowers.

Gouache 9 x 12

Sentinels

Gouache 9 x 12

For those of you who may wonder, gouache is a translucent watercolor medium. I became frustrated with watercolor because the process is the reverse of my thinking. Working from light to dark is just hard for me to visualize. I understand I'm not alone. Because of my experience, I have nothing but admiration for people that do it well.

I became much more comfortable once I moved to oil painting.  A tried-and-true method of learning to paint is to copy other artists. I became fascinated with the work of Carol Rhode Curly. Now the point of copying other artists is not to reproduce their paintings, but to have their work inspire your version of the subject.

Curly is a mixed media artist who incorporated things into her work like found objects and fabric. Essentially, she works with chalk pastels. I was frustrated because of my inability to get the look I wanted to emulate from her work until I tried qouache.

The two paintings I posted today are not inspired by her work, but by photos or parts of photographic images I found online.

If you thought COVD was challenging...

In Milwaukee, we were spared from most of the violent weather that was foisted on areas of our country as climate change served to break records for extreme storms and droughts.

The mild summer which extended into fall was pleasant as you could hope for during the one hundred and eighty days of possible good weather in Wisconsin.

However, the slight rumbling in my radiator and the need for a fleece jacket, while I'm indoors, tell me it's time for hibernation.

Since I stream all of my TV entertainment, I have some suggestions for all of you that are tearful about the end of summer concerts in the park and moving the farmer's markets indoors.

BritBox: TV Streaming Service

Sherwood is an eight-part series about a community infected with hatred over a miners' strike that occurred many years ago. With numerous story threads about the residents and some characters that return to the scene, the writers have skilfully and without apology, introduced a replica of Sherwood's most famous resident of the past, the vengeful archer.

I must caution you. if you pursue BritBox, you will find many crime series dramas that are light-hearted like Rosemary and Thyme or the more gut-wrenching Shetland. The problem being you'll pick up a whole new vocabulary and mixed accent of Scot, Irish, Welch and cockney. 

(Only God and the Brits will know where you found it.)

Amazon Prime:

For us fantasy junkies. Prime produced, at tremendous expense, we're told, The Rings Of Power.  I'm not sure f this is an authorized prequel to The Trilogy. I've heard the purists are upset. I like it. Here again, note how the different inhabitants of middle earth have different British accents. My folks are haarfoots (Irish) 

Peacock & Paramount +:

Soccer. Men, Women, USA, Europe, Club and Country It may not be your football, but it's mine. I get a kick out of it. (No apologies for the previous.)

HBO:

The authorized prequel to, The Game of Thrones is HBO's The House of Dragons.

If that's not enough for you, I discovered the entire catalog of Doctor Who, the backstory of Bruce Wayne's butler, Pennyworth, and the movie for the crying eyes of all of us who sprang from the old sod, Belfast.