Oh dear god where do I start on this? First of all I learned I can accomplish much by just jumping into it.
I have never done a staircase before but I very much believe in the vision of this project and decided to have a go at it.
Perfection doesn't happen in a single painting, the perfecting happens over time as you keep painting, from each painting I learn a bit about myself, my abilities and what my weaknesses are in painting. Ok I admit perspective is a challenge for me, compare this painting to the photo I used and the stairs look off.
BUT the whole point of this painting was to paint the spookiness of the place, I have never been there, the owner said when you go upstairs it's like you're at a different level. I made things in that painting to look foreboding. It's a beautiful piece despite it's imperfections, however some on Twitter have said Loftus was really awesome or badass.
Things seem to come out in my paintings, it's really odd, and in working on this it creeped me out. First of all the recessed area on the top there that holds the cross, above it you see an eye, I had shaded darkly with some charcoal for a shadow before I painted it with titanium white for the foundation of the painting, an eye jumped out at me, it wasn't my intention, when I stepped back and noticed it looking at me it gave me the shivers, I kept it, then when I did the upper wall more started coming out.
On the right is something that I say would look like a freakin demon skull, the left looks like a skull or a ghostly face, you be the judge for what you see. In either case it was UNINTENTIONAL I was just dabbing a darker layer in, I started with Titanium white, next a layer of magenta which was really bright, toned it down with zinc white which is transparent and then I thought it needed darkening up, so I dabbed lightly with the purple I had and noticed what was going on at a certain point. Yah got the chills again, which was good, it's supposed to be creepy. I have painted before when other images seem to just crop up. I go with it. Trust your art instincts. Let it flow, the painting will paint itself. I love reaching that point when I am working and not even feeling I am in this living world, I am at one with the painting which is another life altogether. I am glad I found others thinking the same way on Art21's Twitter account, makes me less isolated knowing other artists are in this frame of mind.
Knowing when the painting is DONE I have had a time with this one, I kept seeing areas that needed to be fixed. Granted there are trouble areas with the perspective of the banisters, but if I would try to fix it I would really mess up the painting, I just have to leave it alone and just learn from it. It is still great, and after working hard on this I had to take a break and do an 'easy' painting, a bit of an experiment in color.
This is Blazing Dawn, I nicknamed it Lollipop because the mane made me think of those swirly lollipops.
It is a smaller painting, which will be on Etsy as soon as I finish the edges, the painting itself is done.
I like working on these 11by8 sizes, I can be free to play more on a smaller canvas, I really do love large works but I get so much work done with the smaller canvases. I take my painting seriously, but I must PLAY that's the key to such fun and bright works, to really let myself play and discover interesting color combinations. Some may look like kids stuff but hey Picasso said it took him a long time to be able to paint like a child again.
I have been working on Proveglia too but that's another blog entry.
