My van is broken and has been in the garage for 3 days now. My camera is broken. The logs ran out so I had to order more. Now my computer is broken.
To top it all I have been trying hard to work with acrylic paints and not really managing it. I have painted in watercolour for so long now and sort of know what to do and what to expect but I think maybe that I am trying too hard, or maybe not hard enough with the acrylics. I need to play with them more, to learn their language before I can make them say what I would like them too. The colours are beautiful and on the advice of Catherine Hyde I bought gels and mediums and they are wonderful to work with and make the paints behave like oils but dry like acrylics. My mood has been fierce dark and all the things I have done so far are ugly and yet, and yet, and yet…….. It is good to be trying something new.
But why? Why change after all this time? Not really sure. I want to work bigger. I want to paint on different surfaces. And in the very brief moments that I get it almost right they look wonderful.
Perhaps the main problem is that I am not sure what I want.
Appart from a new clutch, a new camera, a new computer and some logs, a Christmas tree and someone to organise Christmas, some enthusiasm and an Irish wolfhound.
So, thanks for small blessings. I am sitting by the fire in a sleeping house, waiting for the light to come so that I can put away some logs in the woodshed. There is a dog asleep on my feet ( Rosie). Last night’s storm with it’s thunder and lightening may have cleared something and perhaps today I will rediscover the ability to paint.
Hi Jackie
I’ve admired your beautiful watercolors, and am looking forward to seeing what you do with acrylics.
I too have always painted with watercolor, but recently have been trying my hand at oils. I feel like I’ve had to rewire my brain, but it’s been worth it. The oils are sure different (put in the dark values first!), but the effects are marvelous.
Thanks for your blog,
Maggie
it is indeed difficul to change mediums. i found this so when i wanted to go from acrylics to watercolors(had not used them in many years). it does take time and patience. wanting good results immediately can deter our perseverence. but the end result will be satisfying. good luck
Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger — I’ve had a terrible week — started off with a case of food poisoning. Another blog friend got a manuscript back in galleys that was extensively messed up by the “editor,” and then they got a malware on their computer, another blog friend has had a dog with a sore foot, and a cat with an IBS flare. Mercury just came out of retrograde — wouldn’t you know. See: http://www.beyondsunsigns.com/mercretfaq.html
the challenges of a new medium must seem quite daunting ..but nothing ventured nothing gained…all creative work seems to involve frustrations and disappointments, sounds like you are at the fight it out stage..but it’ll pass and you’ll get where you want to be I’m sure (and then we get to appreciate your efforts and hopefully you do too :0) )
A Beautiful (to look at and Natured) Wolfhound lives next door …so I can appreciate that desire. Our dog who died at 15 this year was 1/2 Wolf and was a uniquely Wonderful dog..there was a gentle irony (that we couldn’t share) of a Wolfhound and our dog living happily next door to each other and occasionally going for a stroll.
Good luck with Logs and Van and Camera
Surely you can conjure a dragon to scare off the things that go wrong! I’ll be curious to see how you master acrylics…I find watercolor to be kind and gentle where acrylics make me feel rushed and wasteful. Good luck in your pursuit of new creative paths.
Up early now in sleeping house and hoping to get the van back today as it might be good to go Christmas shopping, perhaps, to Solva Woollen Mill, maybe even Solva village. Lots of kind thoughts and messages of support sent through yesterday. I will be ok when I can clear away all that gets in the way and just paint. And I will play more with the acrylics. Been looking at Brian Wildsmith who uses them like watercolours.No. Like Brian Wildsmith. He paints as he does and is brilliant.
I found your blog forever ago by way of Robin Hobb’s; madly inspired from that day to this I get all nose-on-screen over every progress shot (I have such love for any artist who will post in-progress views of work) and I occasionally experiment with gilding, although not in a way I’d call ‘successful’ as yet.
Acrylics, though, acrylics and I are companionable. (Always more to learn.) Have you tried acrylic inks? My passion is Liquitex Acrylic Ink, I use Golden Airbrush Colors (they’re acrylic too) as well and fill in with Golden Fluid acrylics to get some colors that aren’t available in the inks. I use them like a watercolorist, with alcohol and salt, on Claybord so I can scratch details back in.
Thank you for doing what you do, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Thank you. Still trying to make time to play with them. Robin Hobb is brilliant isn’t she. Always look forward to working on her next book.