I haven't made a long-form post for a few weeks as this spring has been a convergence of multiple areas of my life getting busier - some self-imposed and some not-so-self-imposed. Between my day job, my kids social and extracurricular lives, my partner's excitement for lawncare, and a work-related course I'm slogging my way through it's been full, tiring days.
Despite the legion of other things pulling at my attention, I've made leaps and bounds with my art practice. While I've not had the time to produce a large number this past month (I think about 5 with 4 I'll be selling/sold), what I've been lacking in quantity I've been making up for in quality.
After the painting for my last blog post, It's All Going to Be OK:
I decided I wanted to re-create a piece. Shine On is a mirror image of Under the Bright Lights, which until that point had been one of my favourite paintings (of my own). The photo it is based on just caught the mother bear looking so calm and serene. The contrast in the painting is so striking and, of course, you have the northern lights (which - in case you cannot tell - I'm kind of obsessed with making the background...).
The difference was pretty immense considering they were only painted two months apart from each other.
I maintained the contrast in the fur, but limited my use of the pure white this time around. I also went a bit wild with the background because I had just finished And the Sky Turned Green and was absolutely haunted by how wild that background turned out. Applying that technique in this painting helped to create more contrast by having a background that looked a bit more untamed while maintaining the bear's calm demeanor.
And finally, I painted the title picture for this post, "The Eye of the Storm". Which shocked me by selling basically immediately. I have never painted an image, posted a picture that day, and sold it all within a couple of hours before and let me tell you I needed that boost!
It was an experimental piece and the plan was actually to have it as a vertical piece, but once I got the background in I couldn't bear the thought of painting over almost all of it. My partner pointed out that it seemed like a reflection and so I decided to roll with that - and I'm so glad I did. It turned out better than I could have hoped. This one is sold, but I'll have prints up soon!
Until next time - Cheers and check out the bears in May!