Back to work on Dream Surreal pieces: DS #2 and DS #4

 I was still feeling kind of tired, Tuesday, but I picked some soothing stuff to work on. I love painting around the outsides of things. And I seem to be into purple right now... On DS #4 I painted around some of the edges of the foal. Purple + some green and some burnt sienna and yellow ochre.

That's a close up; and this is what it's looking like now, as a whole:

On DS #2, I just filled in a bit among the strands of the horse's forelock, and then played around a little bit, around his ears. I also tried doing some lifted lines in the upper part of the purple. I will probably work a bit more on those.

They almost start crossing the lines in the green, like a lattice, I feel like...

 

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Some other new stuff

This last Tuesday (the time that the art group I'm in meets, via Zoom), I hit one of those days when I didn't feel up to working on any of my new series. Pre-Thanksgiving issues, maybe - I don't know. Anyway, it felt like time to just bathe in the colors and how the water spreads them on the paper... So this one is from Tuesday. Maybe finished, maybe not, and maybe "finished" is irrelevant, even:

 I do like it, in any case. The time spent painting was sweet, and what came of it feels soothing and healing to me.

Sometime last month (October 24th) was another time when I hit that I-don't-want-to-work-on-the-new-pieces barrier, and reminded myself that I'm allowed to just play with the paint and water and paper; and this is what came of that:

-- I enjoy this one, too.

 

Then there are my Sunday morning noodlings, with my multi-color colored pencils, and sometimes some color sticks. On Sunday mornings I am usually chat host for the Zoom end of my Unitarian Universalist church's services. I show up an hour and a half early for sound check - I figure I'm a good person to do that, as my ears are not great, even with hearing aids, so if I get the sound right for me, it will probably be good for most people - and I like to keep my hands busy. (This is one thing that feels so good to me about doing art: just having a pencil or a brush in my hand, moving it on the paper, making marks, playing with colors and shapes and patterns.)

Here's one that was continuing this last Sunday (I don't always keep working on them more than one time):

Oh, the edges of leaves! I love the shapes, and I love getting to fill in around them with mindless, soothing, smooth color...

 

One from early last month:

This one was going more slowly and thoughtfully than I usually work on these pieces; I was paying more attention to composition, and going one piece at a time. Add a bit; see how it feels; grope around for what next little bit might want to be added - or, is it time for just something I feel like doing (like the circles above), and see if that adds to it or throws it off...

And one from September:

There are things I really get excited about, in this one! What to do with it? Should I try turning it into a finished painting? Or will it just stay in my sketchbook or my files? I don't know. But I'm enjoying it.

 

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DS #1 Finished, more work on DS #3

 DS #1 is now finished, and dated. I did more new work on it than I'd expected: a string of three more yellow circles in the upper left, to mirror the ones in the lower right; and also softened and extended the orange in the horse's butt. Also a little bit more detail in the wolf cubs and their connection to the blue band.

And more work on the horse in DS #3: around one ear and the side of the face; more on the forelock; and then surrounding with a dark purple.

Still looking for a title for #1...

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DS #1: Just. About. Done.

This is an actual stage in my paintings and other art: Finished - Just About. Meaning that I think it's finished, maybe - sometimes I'm more sure, sometimes less - but the piece needs to sit a few days or a week or so, and then I'll look at it again, and ask all the parts of me - my gut, my heart, my feet, my left elbow - listening as closely and clearly as I can: is there anything unsettled? Anything that feels like it's missing? Does it have all the energy and balance it needs? Has it completed the circle?

Considering that I often don't know what my pieces mean, or are about (I just (hopefully) feel strongly that they are trying to say something), this is not an easy thing. And it may be years, decades, before I consciously understand a painting better...

So, here it is, DS #1 (which now needs a title), all-but-finished; untaped, signed, and partly dated:

This is not the well-photographed image I'll end up with, but a just-for-now pic.

One of the things posting it here will do for me is help me see it more clearly.

Now it needs a name. Anyone have any thoughts? I'm open to suggestion...

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Recent work (on a bunch)...

 I've gotten behind on posting! But here are some updates.

On #1: I've been working on this batch of little howling wolf cubs. Last week - a little outlining of throat on two of them; this week: more rendering and details, and the two are getting much closer to finished. Once I finish them and the lefthand one, and do one more (currently secret-surprise) element, I think this painting will be done. And will need a name.

 

On #4: I've been working on the sleeping foal, and liking the way it's going; also did a little more on the magenta curl. Again, I'm thinking about how much more this painting needs before I feel like it's done; I would say, a fair amount more, but it's moving along...

 

 

 

On #2: I've been working on the woman - and her hair! And a bit more on the tree, I think; and some on the dog. I am liking what's happening with the woman!

With this one, clearly the dog needs to be developed, and the fishy creature also needs some unknown additional work; and I feel like it needs something else, but I'm not sure what, yet; but I feel like the painting is just about in sight of being finished.

 

And, on #3: I've done lots more work on the horse, and like what's happening, but there are things I'm not sure about. And, of course, more work to do on little howling wolf cub #1, and all of the work on the second one; and then, again, some unknown stuff. But (is this getting boring? or maybe exciting?) this one, too, feels like it's maybe 75% finished?

 

 

And so then, I'm thinking maybe it's time to go looking through my older work and sketchbooks again, and start planning another two or three or four of these... Hmmm.

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