Morning Digital Art Warm up

Cityscape – Digital Painting – Soft Charcoal, Soft Pastel, Dirty Marker Pen & Gritty Charcoal Variant of Charcoal -5 x 5 inches

This morning I grabbed a cup of tea and sat down at my computer and began painting. I used  Painter 7 along with my walcom tablet and pen.

The inspiration for this painting was a cityscape. I started with the dirty pen variant of felt pens, then I applied rich layers of color using the soft charcoal variant of charcoal and the gritty charcoal variant, lastly I added more texture with the dirty pen variant.

My daily morning warm ups  gives me the opportunity to play, explore and try new techniques, mediums and ideas with wild abandon. No worries about wasted paint or canvasses. If I decide I don’t like what I’ve done,  I just hit the delete button. No fuss, no mess!

The abstract painting above is my interpretation of  what a city looks and feels like.

“All that a city will ever allow you is an angle on it — an oblique, indirect sample of what it contains, or what passes through it; a point of view.”
– Peter Conrad

The Heart of Gaia

The Heart of Gaia – Digital Painting – Soft pastel variant of pastels & Soft charcoal variant of charcoal – 8 x 8.5 inches

I started this painting a couple of weeks ago and finally finished it yesterday.

The painting is about touching the earth, listening to her heartbeat and being filled by the mysteriousness of all life. Gaia whispers, Heaven is right here. Can’t you see it?”

During my walks down by the creek near our home I am always filled with wonder and love for all the beautiful flowers and creatures which inhabit the area.  There are oak trees, willow trees, alder trees, blackberry bushes and wild flowers along the dirt trail near the creek. Everywhere you look Mother Nature has touched the Earth with her paint brush.

Last week I watched a Snowy Egret bathing in the creek. It was so beautiful with it’s  fine delicate feathers glowing and shimmering in the reflected sunlight. It was such a magical moment I added an Egret to the painting as a symbol of resurrection, regeneration and renewal.

Within the heart area of the painting, the Goddess Gaia watches over a Snowy Egret. She is the primal Mother Goddess of the Earth, complete in herself.

The Snowy Egret which is a small white Heron is said to be a Spirit Guide. The Heron was considered to be sacred by the Greeks and was believed to be one of Athena’s divine messengers. In China, the Heron stands for strength, purity, patience and longevity. In Egypt the Heron is a symbol of creation.

Full Moon Tonight

The full moon in May is known as Milk Moon, Corn Planting Moon, Flower Moon and Hare’s Moon.  Best of all the full moon is  in my sun sign Sagittarius!

All day I had to keep reminding myself to slow down and breathe. When the moon is in Sagittarius I usually have so much energy I can hardly stand still. lol

I think I was driving my husband a little crazy!

The image above was painted with Painter 7.  I usually begin with a sketch but today I decided to just start adding paint to the canvas. My goal was to create a painting  in an hour without over thinking the whole process. It actually  helped me to loosen up and get back into the flow. No expectations except to have a good time.

I used the Soft Charcoal variant of Dry Media to paint the face, hair and background and then added the Artist Pastel Charcoal variant to the background.

Dream Heart

Dream Heart – Digital Painting – Soft pastel variant of pastels & Soft charcoal variant of charcoal – 6 x 7 inches

I had no other desire or plan for this painting except for creating a heart with a spiral inside it. All the rest came from somewhere within my subconscious mind, where half glimpsed worlds of strange beings flitted past the corner of my eye and brilliant bold colors begged to be splashed onto the canvas.

I worked for two straight days on this piece and all I want to do right now is sleep.

For the past couple of nights I’ve had strange dreams, the one dream image which stands out from the others, is where I find myself standing on a hillside overlooking a valley where hundreds of women and children are gathered together, carrying buckets and rags.

Everywhere I looked,  I saw oil seeping up out of the earth.

I used Painter 7 and Painter IX to paint Dream Heart.

Sacred Spirals

Lady of the Sacred Spirals – 4 x 5 inches – Mixed Media

I created this digital painting from an acrylic mixed medium painting of mine. First I made the mask and then attached it to a canvas.

After it had dried I applied a thick coat of  acrylic medium and then sculpted the feathers and the drape over the head, next I applied wool for the hair and various kinds of art paper to give the image more texture. It took almost two weeks for the piece to dry. lol

It was painted using golden acrylics, watercolor and inks. When it was finished I took a bunch of photos and selected one to scan into photo shop. I used Painter 7 to create the final painting you see now. The original canvas was 22 x 28 inches and has already found a home.

I really let my child out to play on this one and the whole process was way too much fun! I may have to do this again once the sun comes out again.

The Awakening

The awakening painting was created by first making a pencil sketch on paper then scanning it into the computer. I used Corel Painter 7 & IX to paint the image.

Mostly I used the soft charcoal variant of charcoal & the artist pastel variant of pastels and oil brushes. I worked in many layers, applying coats of digital paint on successive layers. When I had finished, the layers were flattened on the background image.

This particular image is probably one of the most complex paintings I have done to date, and utilizes many more layers than my other work.

The inspiration for this painting came from my dreams, which at the time seemed mainly focused on the inner child and the awakening of the great healing potential which lies within our deepest selves. These dreams seemed to lift my spirits and helped me through a particularly challenging time in my life so I felt inspired to create a piece of work that reflected my thoughts and feelings about the process.

Moon Goddess

I’ve had a love affair with the moon ever since I was child, and my favorite past time was going outside after sunset to swing on my swing set, until the moon came out. I would sing to the moon and mom would play the guitar, it was magical. We continued this little ritual of ours for years and it ‘s one of my fondest memories.

We lived in a very remote area where the stars were so bright,  you felt like you could reach up and pluck them from sky. Unfortunately, today I live in the city and the sky always looks kind of hazy, but I can see the moon from our patio as she makes her nightly journey across the sky. Our mother is no longer with us, but the memories still live on.

Nimue

The Lady of the lake from the Arthurian legend has always fascinated me, and the moment I laid eyes on a photograph sent to me of my niece Tessa, I knew I had found my inspiration for the painting of Nimue.

It was a photo of Tessa, dripping wet from being caught out in a rainstorm. What caught my attention was the look in her eyes. I loved it and began the  painting  of Nimue that very day.

While most interpretations of Nimue’s role in the stories of  Camelot present her in a negative light, I much prefer the more positive take on her role as a gifted  student of Merlin’s and a Priestess of Avalon.

Daybreak

Aurora is the Roman Goddess of the Dawn. Her name means ” daybreak, the dawn, or sunrise. Ovid describes her as the one who brings the light of day as she rides in her chariot across the skies ahead of the sun.

I envisioned her with a beautiful cloak swirling, flowing around her as she pulls back the veil which separates night from day. Aurora is dancing the dawn into being.

Mask Of Gaia

Gaia the primordial Greek goddess believed to be The Mother Goddess or Great Goddess. She is also said to personify the earth,  the Greek version of  “Mother Nature”.

The inspiration for this painting came from a dream I had in 2004. In the dream I found myself flying over continents and oceans, and finally coming to rest in a beautiful overgrown primordial garden.

Underneath a rather large tree I found an old cracked earthen mask and as I moved closer, the mask  began to shift and change.

The earth itself began to make strange humming sounds. As the humming grew louder, the earth covered the mask with all kinds of leaves and flowers. The mask was completely covered except for the eye holes.

When I bent down to take a closer look, I found myself staring into a strangely beautiful pair of eyes. The earth shook and I heard a voice say… I am Gaia.