Some thoughts about art on Christmas Day

Started another painting today. Not sure how it's going to develop but the background is varying shades of yellow. Yellow is one of my favorite colors after green. There is something about this shade that makes me feel warm and happy so I use it a lot, to the point where I'm running low on all shades. Christmas Day is a good day to start a new project given the choice of TV programs. Note to TV programmers: not everyone celebrates this particular holiday! But I digress.

Somebody donated some art supplies to our painting group a while back, which included some 10"x10" canvas boards. They are quite handy and I use them to try out new concepts, rather than waste larger canvases. Throwing out the larger sized canvases denotes failure to accomplish a finished picture in addition to wasted paint. After completing the yellow background, used a palette knife and scooped out a blob of red crimson paint with the intent of creating flowers. Added some thickening paste to make them stand out and accentuate the petals. Once again my chronic syndrome of never-knowing-when-to-stop-adding-itis kicked in and what started out to be a delicate flower ended up, for lack of a better description, a round 3D version of a red textured blob. In an attempt to fix it, I scraped off some of the layers with a palette knife, which made things worse having not allowed enough time to let the yellow paint dry. Red+yellow=orange. After half hour of "fixing", tosssed it into a plastic bag and the garbage can.

My cyber friend, Donna Campbell Smith, has decided to return to painting. I knew she would. Once an artist - always an artist. It's in the blood and even though she is an accomplished children's author, her return is not surprising. It's good in another way in that there is another person in which to discuss art and the creative process, therein. Looking forward to exchanging ideas and suggestions.

Did some touching up on my blue abstract painting, which really enhanced the overall look. Tempted to continue touch-ups, I resisted the urge - thank goodness. It really turned out nice, IMHO.

Seriously contemplating changing to water-based oil paint since the colors achieved are definitely brighter than can be achieved with acrylics. Mind you, I haven't tried all the acrylic brands but visually I like the results of oil paint.

 Once I finish the sky on my small landscape, will take photos of my three new additions and add them to the blog. The trouble with the creative process is sometimes it works and sometimes it don't. Like I always say, when it works, though, it's magic! By the way - if you're an artist and reading this blog and if you feel so inclined, share some of your painting experiences. Sharing is a learning experience in itself.