by Diane: Update #1, Caregiving mini-art-respite - pharmaceueudical CEOs won't like this

6" square

A more perfect day for painting outside could not have been asked for. Last Friday after not painting last week, all the steps of the painting process fell into place. My past week's observing and incubating the flight of swallows paid off for making the paint-out exceptional. Credit also goes to my paint-out partner via zoom. My phone was set on the painting table so I could hear the scrapping of the palette knife and she could see me paint. Painting together creates energy that becomes part of the painting. Rarely do I paint pictures that just take a life of their own and flow making me surprised that I could have painted it myself.
    Cloudy skies after the rain the night before cleared. The sun's heat was warm on my arms.  The atmosphere was damp, no breeze, shadows spread across the greening foliage.  As the sun climbed towards the zenith, clouds again started to gather.  The acrylic gouache remained moist on the palette. New Lascaux paints - a type of gouache with a matt acrylic finish pleased me. Especially liked the rough Ampersand aquabord used for both paintings!

        A vague comment on last week's blog, I interpret to mean that movement can be expressed on the picture plane with less than three points.  Three points are necessary to make a curve is simple geometry. If my commenter intended to dissagree because it is possible to express curved movement without three successive turning images, she is correct. . A curved direction of swallows can be expressed with a swash.

11"x 14"

       I found it simple illustrating the flight direction change of it's lowest image with swash.. At least while painting it, I was happy and felt it was complete until someone asked are those birds? So made the swish of the middle image more prominate connecting it to the more distant one with a skinny line.




18" x 24"

      Another artist said some painters want others to have their own interpretation While others are offended if their work is seen different from what they intend.  My process here of painting my perception and emotional vision means I am painting a reality I want to share like an illustration. My non-objective paintings stimulate others to see an object which I find pleasantly amusing.

Life beyond painting last week:

Fisherman hubby has a new gadget - a Surface-pro "3 Grid" app on an Ipad. It will generate speech for him. He and one daughter are customizing the files and his speech therapist tries to make changes for easier use. We are now making use of an Oregon Health Science University in conjunction with the ALS Organization virtual 4+ hour ALS clinics. The first one this week.

   The tension of  on line meetings had me so tense that I hurt all over. Then gardening and cutting a watermelon flared up the arthritus in my right wrist. I felt really tired but I started painting anyway.  After awhile, I realized that I didn't hurt anymore. Even an hours later pain free!

    Tomorrow is Fisherman Hubby and my 55th wedding anniversary. We are going to celebrate even if we have been doctoring this week.