"Oh Glorious"

It all started with the purchase of a bouquet of sunflowers.

I knew if anything was going to entice me to paint again after a long absence, it would be the GLORIOUS Sunflower!

I prepped a 24 x 24 canvas with watered down magenta and yellow-medium acrylic. A paper towel took off the excess paint.

The first marks were with willow charcoal which I find pretty messy, so I switched to diluted turquoise paint for redefinition.

It isn't unusual for me to start a painting with acrylic, setting in composition and some basic color.  Artist grade acrylics are fabulous and have wonderful color properties...and I can quickly change my mind as there is little drying time.

Pretty messy at this point, and time to re-correct drawing and

begin laying in thinned oil in corresponding colors.

I paint with large flats and occasional filberts/synthetic. Working the thick, viscous paint is sheer pleasure.

You will note the paint is "sliced" through, that is thanks to a credit card, palette knife, or small piece of hard rubber dicing up the paint, creating a softened effect.  

Now I should have left this painting about here, just finishing up the vase....but I left the painting for a week or two...then couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do...meanwhile my Bell glass jar with water and flowers had ceased to be and I had no photo as reference.

Oops didn't realize how blurry this photo was, sorry, it isn't your eyes.  Anyway, I did an about face in all directions: gone-- water/vase, no soft side flowers, and clouds of swirling background. 

Eventually I became weary of this painting, sent a photo to Tam, my best critic ever, and expected to call it quits.

Uhhhhh, not quite the response expected.  Tam gave me some suggestions and I took it to heart.  She is pretty persuasive.

(By now I am not photographing my steps, as I was pretty much not enjoying the process like I had at the beginning.)

I think you would agree with me...this is far from my original design when I worked from life and ended up painting in the imaginary part of my brain.

From soft to stylized....

One thing I have learned: there are ever so many ways to paint a subject. None of which is correct or incorrect, but rather that you are pleased with the final result.  This painting, in particular the color has grown on me.

"Oh, Glorious" is happily framed and hanging in the RiverView Gallery.  410-939-6401

TWO NEW PAINTINGS JUST OFF THE EASEL

What do I know for sure?  Well for one thing: it is easier for me to post photography related articles than those on painting.  It gets a bit lopsided at times.  Love both creative outlets, but let's be truthful here....painting just takes longer for a myriad of reasons.  Today's photography can be instant gratification, clarification and sharification.

That said, I have finished two smallish 8x8 paintings that are now posted on my website. YAY, progress.

Before you scroll to the paintings, I just want to mention that my favorite gallery I have been a part of for many years...way north in Havre de Grace, MD has opened a new website.  You can see all of the talented artists, potters and sculptors on this site. 
RiverView Gallery

"Down the Lane"  available, comes framed.

"Sunflowers in Black and White Vase" available, comes framed.


These paintings are on hardboard panels. Next to real linen canvas, they are my favorite substrates.
Most of my oils are transparent, with a few exceptions...and obviously white. Although there is a transparent white. Using transparent colors allows for a clean, clear palette with fewer muddy colors.

There is a new collection, "Encaustics and Cold Wax," opened on my website, Sharon Furner Fine Art.  Slowly I will be adding more pieces done in this wonderful new medium. Always something new to learn.

Have a great day and find a few minutes to create....how about Peep topped cupcakes?
Okay, maybe read a book.

GONE GONE GONE

Color us GONE GONE GONE. All the work, planning, farewells and efforts to move from a beloved home to a new home of opportunity and adventure have now past. Finished. Done. Complete.

And with this chapter closing behind us, a by product has led me to neglect a few things like: bloggING, paintING, photographING and writING!!!  I have missed this creative part of my life. But..SMILES... today finds our new home in a semblance of order, all those "brown boxes" emptied/donated, studio set up, a wee bit of food in the pantry and all the beds made. Now the new studio is beckoning, COME BACK, COME BACK. 

LOOKING OVER MY SHOULDERS

The day before the movers came to load all of our STUFF,  I buzzed around Havre de Grace, revisiting all the tiny nooks and crannies, the quaint and quirky, the favorites and  funky. This is a village that is very hard to leave. SOOOOO  today's post is a JOY to offer you: photographs of some really luscious places in HDG!  Next posting will be the really funky personality side of the village..you know the "I can't believe it is real".....but for now, join me for an armchair view of the village that opened our eyes and hearts to vistas of land, water, sky.

Swift footed mascot strutting before his court!

Farewell for now...ducks, geese, seagulls....footsteps and fallen feathers the marks you leave behind.

Sweet magnolia...petals of creamy wax...flower of the South.

Hydrangea mounds majesty

Havre de Grace is not bashful. Homes and businesses are as colorful as a platter of delicious cupcakes.

Popsicle Colors 

Giant trees to climb and pretend to be a damsel in distress or captain. of a pirate ship.

 

Faux French Chateau, robust with life and ambiance.

 Step inside, inhale the perfume of herbs, vitamins, minerals, incense and the mildewy age of an old building.

First rays of sunrise skipping across the bay reflecting on the windows of the RiverView Gallery. My home away from home, hosting many of my paintings. Tamara Stickler, a multi-talented artist herself, with an eye and natural instinct for displaying works of art, is the Gallery Director and a Very Best Friend. It is Tamara that I miss most in Havre de Grace.

A few of my paintings sitting in the front window, speckled by blots of sunrise. Love love the papier mache fish appearing to float out of the glass bowl of goldfish up into the Lily Pond painting. This is the humor and talent of Tamara to put works of art together, to settle shoulder to shoulder.

 

 

Thank you for sharing a few minutes with me. Feel free to write or paint from any of these photographs. I intend to myself. How better to sustain a memory. 

 

I can't resist sharing in the next blog the really quirky personality of HDG!!!  Then I will get back to sharing what I am working on now in my Art Journals, my new studio and life in the SOUTH.

 

Home is where we reside at this exact moment, where our hearts beat, and we enjoy each moment of living. Home was once Havre de Grace, home now is Charlotte, NC.