Making art

I painted the 36" x 36" with gesso tinted in a warm light yellow. The canvas had white gesso on it but I added a second layer of gesso. I use a pan to mix my colors and always wear gloves. All paint is toxic and I try to keep it off my skin. Golden does a good job of rating their paints' toxicity plus the colors are good. When I clean up I make sure to wipe my brushes on an old towel or a paper towel before putting the brush in water. Please try to keep paint out of our water. While there a many products to clean brushes and no doubt work well, I use Murphy's Oil Soap. It works so well that I have never tried anything else to clean my brushes.

Making art

Earlier this month I said I would show how I begin a painting and how I work. It was a challenge to stop, take photos and then download the images. This work is not finished so there will be more to show. Please note that I do not start a work the same why each time. There are times I can't wait to apply the paint and there I go. No one way is the only way. This is how I began Me and MB, a 36" x 36" acrylic and paper on canvas. Your comments, if you care to leave some, are welcome.

Top left image shows the color photo I used. The image is of our niece and her dog at the beach. It was enlarged in black and white. I created a composition which included what I liked of the photo and where the light originated.

Top right image shows the sketch of the composition done on a large sheet of newsprint paper.

Bottom left shows my parrot Ben watching every move I make. She is my critic and often shows her liking with a display of feathers or her disliking with a pile of droppings!

In My Garden Series

Island Critters at Play, 20"x16", acrylic on canvas


Last month I began "In My Garden" Series. Here is the second post for that series. It is currently hanging at the Sun Tan Art Center in St. Pete Beach and will be there until early June. It is an acrylic on canvas.

Art in the Making

A few weeks ago, an emerging artist asked if she could watch me paint. The request surprised me. I said she could paint with me, if she liked, but I did not think just watching would help her. Next another artist, Joanna Coke, suggested I take photos of my work at different stages as I did them so as to avoid some of the time-consuming mis-steps I make on a consistent basis. I've combined the request and suggestion and decided to show you and myself how I paint. You will see all my formal steps and my deviations, including working on other stuff while my main focus is resting. I do not know how long the process will take but I have will begin and finish a painting in this blog. You may make suggestions or comments along the way. I am wide open to that idea. You do not have to be an artist to make comments or suggestions. You need only to have a desire to be part of the process or a wish to keep me from going off a cliff. Know that I am like artist Randal Dutra who gravitates towards a kind of visual poetry as opposed to hard reporting of subject or slavish detail. What excites me is the suggestion of things and feelings. More to come.

Sea Turtle Season on Island

Island Turtle, 20"x 16", acrylic on canvas
We are blessed to live on an island where sea turtles come to lay their eggs. It is time to share what we know about their nesting habits with visitors so these beautiful creatures will live. Sea turtles have been swimming the oceans for 150 million years but deliberate hunting and accidents in fishing nets are now endangering them. Please take care when visiting Anna Maria Island from now until November. Mature females nest once every 2-3 years during the warmest nights of the year here on our island and other tropical and subtropical beaches. Some rules enforced on beaches during nesting season are:
1. Turn off lights at night that face the beach. Hatchlings follow the light of the moon to reach the ocean but if there are other lights, they are lured to their deaths. I have seen hatchlings dead in the road after some careless person left a light on and it is a heart breaking sight.
2. Keep away from marked turtle nests and hatchlings.
3. Take beach furniture off the sand at night. Turtles can get caught in them.
There are 5 species of turtles that swim our waters. The loggerheads are the most common; the green turtles are green because of the fat underneath their shell; the hawksbill have elongated tapered heads that end in beak-like mouths; the kemp's ridley is the smallest growing less than a meter long; and the leatherback is the largest of the turtles. Both of our island papers, The Island and The Sun, have special sections on the turtles and photographs from our local beaches.