Playing with paint

How can I title this page?  What caused me to create these off the wall paintings.  I love them, because they are from my imagination.  They still have a bit of the Raffeal thing going on with the border, but I think that is a connection to my Folk art past having fun with the decorative.

 I'm sitting here again in Pj's with a cat hiding under my shirt and her tail tickling my leg trying to think of how to get you excited about exploring options.  These little guys (5.5 x 7.5) started out with the Bob Burridge mess slopped all over the gessoed paper and each time I vary the color to make it fun.  Are you hearing me Bob, "I AM HAVING FUN", Thank you.

I look at each base of funky colors that I have splattered, blobbed and see what I can find that says image to me.  In the case of the crazy palm, the background color suggested Oriental, and I think of spiky or slender plants.  I started with a stacked vase/pot and grew a palm.

Crazy Palm 5.5 x 7.5

Steaming Soup 5.5 x 7.5

The wonderful splatters in the soup suggested steam to me, so I took one of our soup bowls and modeled it below the spatters.  A placemat with complimentary colors was a natural move.  Go forth and play!

Pears!

Why am I so obsessed with pears?  Is it their beautiful color, feminine shape?  Pears don't care that they are bottom heavy, and skinny on the top.  Their colors vary so much, even a mahogany red pear has green, gold highlights.  One pear may be more green and red, another more burgundy and blue.

 The gold pears fool you into thinking they are just gold, but then when you look closely, you see blushes of red or green; just the reverse of the red pears.  They are a beautiful and delicious symbol of fall, my mother's favorite season.  I haven't been tempted to paint the "brown pears" (bosc?), because I love rich color.  Now that I've said that, couldn't a bosc pear be cerulean, hmm.

Painting a pear is not as simple as it looks.  I've seen beautiful giant pears on canvas, airbrushed to perfection.  These pears are the elite, high society of peardom.  They could live easily in a penthouse with high ceilings, white walls, black furniture and sleek chrome appliances.  No dust on these pears please!

My pears come from Italy, where I would like to go.  They are sun-kissed, misshapen, with  knobby crooked stems and divots on the bottom that make them difficult to pose for my brush.  One side is fatter than the other, some are dull and dry looking, others shine to perfection.  To me, they say paint me, just me!

These pears speak to old-fashioned, textured wallpaper, splatters on the wall, maybe from testing the spaghetti, small prints, hominess.  They hang out waiting for love and attention. I notice them and paint them with love and rich color!

So, here I am still in my pajamas reviewing the pears I started yesterday, adding a touch of dimension here and there.  I'd like to go wash my face and brush my teeth and work in the garden, but.... they are ALMOST finished.

To see more of this obssession go to www.patbrookes.com or, www.etsy.com/shop/patbrookes

3 mahogany pears 7x11 mixed media $150

1 red/green pear 7 x 11 mixed media $150.

Before and after

Before 

After

Sometimes you look at something and think, "it just doesn't talk to me".  The first pear was that way; the background spoke more loudly than the pear.  Seeing that it is all about that iconic pear, action was taken!  I made a beautiful blue and covered the too bright blue green and gave the pear the elegance that it deserved.  It looks like a velvet and velour background now and the pear is happy.

Learning new stuff

Last week I was in Mt Vernon taking a class from Robert Burridge.  I have been admiring his work for a long time and was excited when I learned he was coming to a local workshop.  I fiddle in acrylics, but have not concentrated on using the medium in my fine art.  Using tube and liquid acrylics was a new experience and Bob made it fun.  He says that if your painting gives you angst then you shouldn't be doing  it.  Every day he goes into the studio to play and have fun.

Things I learned:
Making a mess is fun - smear leftover paint over gessoed canvas or paper, use lots of colors, or not.  Let dry; pick out a form, like a pear, paint negative shapes, highlight, shadow, refine, done!
Drip trees:  Smoosh various colors for trees across a mess background with a very wet brush; add dark for the shadow under the leaves; tilt upright and let the trunks drip to the bottom.  Let dry; pick out the background and sky(if necessary), shadows for the trunks on the foreground.  Define if necessary!
Here are some examples:  Check out his website for more examples.  We also did small 5x7 landscapes and florals.