a handful of dreams

Thursday, February 17, 2011


a work in progress - Week 2 painting No. 1 - inspired by Childhood by Mati Rose

This week's assignment was to be inspired by a painter and/or painting and incorporate some or much of that painter's style, iconography, colour palette etc into your own painting (and it was suggested in pushing critical feedback to moi by Mati & Lisa that I leave my vintage papers, glue and scissors behind - no collage - just paint - oh my, it's not at all easy. I washed over the whole piece at the end trying to water down, mute & muddy the intensity of my colours with a mixture of black, burnt sienna and gel medium - a mistake I realize now I need to build the brightness back up. Go with it, those bright colours are me. The house will change completely and Mary Jean Iron's Normal Day poem will fill the smoky air in handwritten text.

As I crawled in to bed very late, for me, last night I whispered to the Prince maybe I'll be one of those crazy ladies who paints all night. A very happy sigh. Oh, and a ps I started this book last night - Strangers at the Feast - it's wonderful, amazingly written I can't explain her style exactly but much in the genre of writers like John Irving or Jonathan Franzen - I'm loving it !! Hooray a good bedtime book is such an essential, wind me down, part of my life.

I realize through all this angst & fuss I'm fine tuning my life to have just a handful of dreams.
A handful of just right dreams. Merci ! for yesterdays great comments with a wink to Chickory


a few favourite saturated tres bright colours
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7 comments:

  1. KathieFebruary 17, 2011 at 8:13 AM

    oooooh, Susan! I LOVE it!!!! can't wait to see what else you do to it!

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  2. SusanFebruary 17, 2011 at 9:01 AM

    thank you Kathie :-)

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  3. Big ShamuFebruary 17, 2011 at 9:46 AM

    Mojo keeping you up is it? I think that's a good thing.

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  4. J.February 17, 2011 at 9:47 AM

    Very lovely, and why the impulse to darken it down? The colors are GORGEOUS.

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  5. SusanFebruary 17, 2011 at 10:09 AM

    Hey sweet J !! not so much darken down but brighten up - before I did the wash of blah the colours were pretty darn zippy, bright and pure and I wish they still were ... but I can cchange that - stay tuned ;-)

    And big Shammy yes mojo, flow, passion that does excite me that feeling of not wanting to stop I was having so much fun. I have a very long way to go but I think this painting course is balm for my creative spirit.

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  6. Dragonfly DreamsFebruary 17, 2011 at 3:24 PM

    Beautiful! So full of color!

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  7. alteredbeeFebruary 18, 2011 at 7:31 PM

    Love your comments about encouraging your inner voice to relax and just play with color and shape.

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