Crazy Weekend
The Data Center where my site is hosted had some issues over the weekend and my site was down. They finally resolved the issue this afternoon. Thank Goodness!
A vacation to Hawaii sounds great right about now. Laying on the beach, listening to the surf, daydreaming, and a soft tropical breeze blowing through my hair.
I use to live in Hawaii and there are times when I really miss it. Several years ago a friend of mine brought me a plumeria lei from Hawaii. I was so touched by the gesture, I felt inspired to paint a portrait of a woman wearing a plumeria lei.
Memories Of Hawaii – Combined Media – 9 X 10 inches
Busy Day
It’s been a very busy day and I am exhausted. I spent most of the afternoon finishing up this painting, and it feels good to be finally done.
Later, my husband and I watched a movie, and now I’m going to go to bed and get a good nights rest.
Woman Dreaming -Digital Charcoal/Oil – Combined Media – 12 X 12 inches
She dreams and weaves together the strands of her life, the past, present, and future. The woman sleeps serenely within the circle, the ancient symbol of the goddess, the womb, wholeness, unity, and infinity. While in the dream world; she builds a bridge between the earthly and mystical realms to heal the earth and her children. – Rose Arizmendi
Inspiration
I spent most of the day working in the studio and managed to get quite a bit done. I prepped a new canvas, and layered in more color on another work in progress.
As I was working, I kept thinking about the meaning behind the word “inspiration”. To inspire, bring about the arousal of the mind to unusual activity or creativity. What inspires creativity? Is it learning something new? I’m not sure what inspires creativity, however, when it strikes I feel excited and passionate about expressing it through color and line.
This evening the inspiration bug hit, and I worked on the digital collage below. The background was created by laying in some watercolor on a blank canvas, then I began painting the figure on a separate layer with watercolor & pastels. Next I merged the painted layers and added text.
Divine Mother by Rose Arizmendi (C) 2008 – Collage/Combined Media
“Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air – explode softly – and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth – boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either – not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with their imagination.”
Crows Everywhere
This morning I awoke to a calliope of sound coming from our front yard. As I peered out our bedroom window to see what all the ruckus was about, I saw a dozen or so American Crows perched on our sycamore trees. Above the trees a small hawk was being chased by some rather angry crows.
To say the least, the crows were very upset. Over the years I have learned to pay attention whenever I hear crows making a scene, and without question there’s usually something out of the norm happening.
Finally after 20 minutes or so everything returned to normal, and peace & quiet returned to our sleepy little neighborhood.
Communion – Combined Media – 10 X 10 inches
- The common American crow is one of the most intelligent of all birds. It is one of only a few species of bird that has been observed modifying and using tools to obtain food.
- It can communicate warning, threat, taunting, and cheer to other crows by varying the “caw” sound it makes.
- Its cries of warning are specific enough that some animals other than crows are also able to use them as signals of dangerous predators.
The Tibetans believe the crow so sacred that watching their actions can predict an outcome in your life.
The Lenape Indians of Delaware also believed in a Many Colored Crow or Rainbow Crow who selflessly brought fire to all the woodland creatures and he is black from burning himself on the trip.
Many of the Celtic goddesses were linked with the crow or raven; Badb, Macha, Nemain, Nantosuelta, and Tethra.
Painting Another Heart
I started another heart painting a couple of days ago. This is my third painting with a crystal heart as the main focal point. I can’t help myself, I feel drawn to paint this ancient symbol.
Throughout history, the heart symbol has been considered a religious icon. The ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the center of all consciousness, the center of life itself. For the Christians the heart represents hope, charity, and forgiveness.
For many others the heart was the center of thought, emotion, the soul, the center of one’s very being.
Celtic Heart – Combined Media – 12 X 12 inches
Erratic Day
The day was a little erratic, with taking our dog to have his nails trimmed, giving him a bath, and trying to get some painting done.
I did manage to squeeze in a couple of hours of painting. The image below is a cropped portion of the painting I worked on today.
Secrets – Digital Combined Media – 16 X 20 inches
“We dance round in a ring and suppose, while the secret sits in the middle and knows.” – Robert Frost
“If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.” – Kahlil Gibran
winged Heart
Over the weekend I did a few more sketches, using the heart theme from my previous post. There was one sketch I kept coming back to, where I had drawn wings inside and around the heart.
After scanning the drawing into photoshop and then moving it into Painter IX, I began the painting by adding color and more detail to each area.
I have no idea where I am going with the blue area on the left hand side of the painting, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out tomorrow.
Winged Heart – Combined Media – 9 X 9 inches
Happy Accidents
The other day I was going through some old watercolor paintings, which had been torn up to use for collage. They were spread out allover my table, and I accidentally placed my clear rose quartz heart, which I had in my jacket pocket on top of these random images.
When I came back from lunch to resume my project, I noticed how the crystal heart distorted the images underneath, so I quickly grabbed my camera and began to play and create different images with the crystal heart. Later I downloaded the reference photos, and here is the first image I painted from this happy little accident.
Heart Dance – Combined Media – 7 X 8 inches
Work In Progress
Here’s a new work-in-progress titled “Vivian, Lady of the Lake.” I chose to paint the figure first and then began developing the background from my reference sketches, and now it is taking on a life of its own.
It’s a gorgeous day and I plan on taking a little walk to stretch my legs, we are suppose to reach the mid-70s today.
Vivian, Lady Of The Lake – Combined Medium – 11 X 14 inches
Work In Progress
I spent this morning working on this painting and had to stop because my allergies were making my eyes water. This time of the year always finds me suffering from seasonal allergies. “C’est la vie!
Yesterday was very stressful because we had a family member go back into the hospital because of complications from a surgery performed last week. I am happy to report he is doing well and will be going home tomorrow. We are all breathing a big sigh of relief, this was a very rough two days!
Playing With Fire -Combined Mixed Media