Showing posts with label Oil painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oil painting. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Seed of Hope Surrealism Portrait

Seed of Hope, 6x12 inches, oil paint and wood burning, $950.00


Seed of Hope is about the ability we each hold in hour hands, the power to change. It's the seed within that we can draw from to accomplish our creation. When you look deeply inward you find everything you need, the wisdom to see clearly and to bring your life into harmony with it.


Pyrography and Oil Process


I use the characteristics of the wood to determine the design. I begin with looking at the grain of the wood, and I wait to be inspired by what my mind imagines there. Sometimes I get the whole painting in a flash and go looking for the right piece of wood. Generally I like swirling, water like, patterns.

I may spray a thin layer of metal paint over the wood, perhaps stain it any color I like, or I will leave it natural. Then I draw the design out, keeping in mind the flow of the wood. I blend my lines into the that. Then burn the dark lines in with a phyrographic tool. All the shading I do with oils.


I will detail the face of my figure, but only draw out with minimal shading, her companion subject. I like to blend many styles (drawing, painting) of image making together to provide interest, and to also express my message which is that change is constant and that all things are connected. To finish a painting is to kill it with perfect stillness. I want movement, a sense of growth, appearing and disappearing of elements.  

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Artist Statement for “Daphne Awakens”, Oil and Gold Leaf on canvas, 24x36”

As the ancient story goes, Daphne was a spirited, marriage-hating young huntress. When Apollo beheld her, her arms bare, her hair in haunting disarray, his heart was set ablaze and he set out in pursuit of her. Daphne fled, and she was an excellent runner. Even Apollo was hard put to overtake her; still, he soon gained. Daphne saw her father's river and cried out to him to help her. Her father transformed her into a laurel tree. The story ends with Apollo honoring the tree.

I am sure Daphne didn't expect to become encased in a tree. She probably felt it was quite unfair. To this thought I have decided to finish her story happily. The spell her father put on her wears off. This painting is the moment she realizes her human self again.

Being encased in a tree is a haunting archetype I have found. It speaks of imprisonment and protection; also to vulnerability when this is stripped away.
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