artsy fartsy

In place of taking another pottery class, I've been committing some time to painting recently. It's been good. It's been a challenge to get back into it and think up some ideas - to put them onto a canvas as creatively as I can. Sometimes I paint because I'm feeling something - like the feeling of a strong wind almost blowing me over, and how fresh that feels....

I like trees. I like to paint them. I'm not particularly good at them, but I like to do it anyway. I don't know what it is about trees that grabs me so much. Maybe it's that each one is so different, even within a species. Maybe it's that they change their appearance so drastically from one season to the next, because of either weather-surroundings or lack of leaves.

When I paint trees, I often think of the tree as an animate object, a character, something with a will of its own, as opposed to just a tree. If it's being wind-blown, I imagine it fighting against the wind for survival, or being blown clean as the wind tears through its bare branches.

As you may be able to tell, I also really love wind. In fact, although I've painted more wind than anything in my work, it's weather itself that I love to paint. Stormy skies, pouring rain, northern lights, windy sunsets. You name it-I love it. But wind holds a special place in my artistic heart.

I also can't get away from bright, fiery colours. I love them. I love bright yellows, oranges and reds. I love the shock value of a dark house silhouetted against a fiery red sky. I love the mystery of what the house might be. Who is in it? What are they doing? Is the house itself an animate object?


I did a new painting last night. My third in the past couple weeks. I'm quite happy with it, although I've had to fight off feelings of worrying that my work is all looking the same, and that it's starting to look rather juvenile. I spiced it up a little differently than the others though, and ended up really being happy with it. It'll be showing up on my art blog as soon as I get a good photo of it. And then I believe it'll be heading to work with Ryan to grace the wall of his office.

That makes me feel great, knowing that my art is hanging somewhere for people to see, instead of sitting around in our storage room, waiting for me to try and get it into a cafe or restaurant.

That's one of my new year's plans, by the way. (Notice I didn't use the term "resolution"? Too much negativity linked with that word...) I'm going to look into getting some of my art into cafes and restaurants in my area. Maybe I'll be able to sell some that way. In the mean time, I'm happy to have a few friends and acquaintances who are interested in commissioning me, and for that I feel quite honoured.

So those are some of my artsy innards for you. Have a lovely, lazy, sleepy Sunday afternoon!