and my poor eyeballs are feeling it. Ragweed allergies, yeesh! Hard to paint with all the itching going on.
Anyhoo, I got to finish the commission for Shirley Coakley (Cokely? sorry....). It was a GREAT commission: Shirley's daughter fell in love with a painting at one of our local resteraunts and Shirley was wondering if something similar could be painted for her daughter as a surprise. It was an absolute BLAST to do, a crab sitting on an onion. It had great wit, perspective and wonderful tones~ it was interesting how the artist highlighted the colors and make them pop and glow with muted grays and then a BAM of color. (hey, it is food and it is hanging in a resteraunt!)
At first, I did have some reservations about doing anothers' work, but I changed some things about it and made it mine. Besides, reproductions can be justified this way: the old masters learned from doing it, why shouldn't we? They are old masters for a reason. And this person taught me much for which I am very grateful.
Either way, Shirley LOVED it and that was the point~ knowing that she and her daughter are happy and like the final product :) She couldn't wait to tell her daughter about it and that made all of the time and wonder worth it. I was proud to do it and am happy everyone is pleased. Thank ya'll for the opportunity :) Love, Linda
PAINTING number 2:
am working on a little watercolor crab and shrimp piece--- see a trend here? and it is coming out really cute. Got some interesting paper (from Tracy's shop in OS--- that is sadly closed now) that just begged for this composition and color scheme. The rich oranges, velvety shadows and eye popping reds got me thinking. The shrimp has a luminescence that is interesting to capture~ contrasted with the opaque bay leaves, its an interesting mix.
Darn, I'm hungry. ok... off to cook something. B back later :)
