Skip to main content

Pleasantly Unexpected


How many times have I sat down to a blank canvas armed with an idea, only to discover the final image was nothing like what I had anticipated?  Many artists are great at planning out their images and producing a final product that is identical to the real thing.  On rare occasions, this has happened to me.  More often than not, I start out with an idea and when I finish it has taken on a life of its own and turns into something entirely unexpected. 

Take for example my painting Wildfire. It started out as the beginning of a wooden water tank. This water tank would have had a water trough for sifting through sand to look for different treasures hidden in the Earth.  For some reason though, it was just not coming out right.  At that moment it just felt wrong.  So, I sat there staring at the beginning of this raw image and my hand.  My hand somehow became a focal point.  I started sketching out the lines of my hand on the canvas with my paintbrush.  All the while thinking I’ll paint over it later.  But then a flash of an image popped in my mind.  The image of this butterfly I had seen months prior in the woods.  I remembered wishing I could hold it.  And so, I painted a hand then the thought of creation and nature and forest fires.  The beauty of life overwhelmed my thoughts and before I knew it was painting fire with life in the flames.  Conveniently that wooden water tank perfectly fit my bear in the corner.  That was not planned.  It just worked out perfectly and I realized only after it was painted. As it was almost finished there was something missing.  Again, the butterfly flittered through my thoughts, only this time emerging to rest upon the palm of my painted hand as I had originally imagined.  

When I finished, I sat back and thought, “Wow, the hand of creation like a tree of life, a wildfire.” 
Hence the name, Wildfire and it is absolutely nothing like what I had planned on creating that day. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All of these are oil painting on canvas with the exception of the last two.  The last two are oil painting on wooden pallet.  I will be posting my paintings here as I produce them but they can also be found on my Facebook in the album titled paintings which are accessible to the public.  These particular paintings will be displayed in an art show for local artist on November 10 th and 11 th , 2012.
Post a Comment
Read more

Halloween Havoc

Blood, guts, maggots, and brains are flashing before my eyes as I surf the web in search of ways to keep a group of preteens entertained at the Halloween party.  Today’s kids are so exposed to horror movies and scary music that the things that would have sent chills down my spine at their age are ‘simply child’s play.’  When I was a little girl “Night Mare on Elm Street” horrified me.  In our house at the time we had a long dark hall way.  My older brother, doing his duty as an older brother took it upon himself to hide in the rooms along the hall where I couldn’t see him; when I would pass he would jump out of the rooms behind me yelling “Freddy’s coming” which of course sent me screaming down the hall because I thought Freddy Kruger was after me.  In my defense I was only nine.  My children on the other hand watched that movie and laughed at the special effects.  They become more desensitized with every new horror movie produced now days.  I...
Post a Comment
Read more

ManyCam - Getting Started

  Getting Started:  Online teaching is a growing industry that has exploded during the pandemic, but it isn't a new thing. I started teaching online in 2018 when I took a little break from the brick-and-mortar schools. Many of the companies that I worked for required that you provide the students with some type of external reward. This reward could be anything from stickers to lining things up on a magnetic board. Some people were even creative and used a tablet with google slides. The problem with the external reward is that you needed a lot of supplies so the rewards wouldn't become monotonous. ManyCam has numerous objects and features that allow you to change rewards for any given class without the added supplies.  Objects:  As I became more proficient with ManyCam I added more objects to use with my students. Sometimes we collected dancing stars, other times we collected ice cream scoops that we pretended to eat at the end, and other times I changed the face acce...
Post a Comment
Read more