Finally Frida

I finally finished this painting, which was started two and a half years ago! It was meant to be a Day of the Dead painting. I wish I had taken a photo of what this looked like before I started. It's interesting to see how your style changes over time. This face is much smoother than what I was capable of doing back then. The background, I changed completely, thanks to new techniques I picked up in some classes. Frida is delicate and young looking, and the background is shabby, and grungy. I thought it was a nice contrast. I just put her up for sale in my Etsy shop, as I have too many originals sitting around. Maybe some Frida fan will appreciate her :-D

I had lots more to blog about, but it will have to wait. I'm in the middle of re-organizing my messy art space. It is hard to work on art when there are bits of paper, and all sorts of supplies lying around. Every mixed media artists will understand this :-D

I'm excited about some new folk art paintings I am planning. So many ideas, so little time!

I'd like to give a big thank you to the sweet Stacey, for giving me a Kreativ blogger award! Check out her blog here for a lovely treat.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

The lonely Mermaid

So much for working on my Cinderella painting, I got side tracked :-)
I used to paint mermaids all the time, especially ACEOs, and haven't done one in a while, so here is my latest, a poor lonely mermaid, with no one to play with.

Looking through my unfinished canvases I found a Frida painting I started two Halloweens ago. Back then I was happy with the face, but now it looks too rough. I stopped because I didn't know how to get the background that was in my imagination on the paper. I still can't, I am working on it though. I want to be like those artists that can put so much detail in their art. How do they do it? I wonder if they use reference photos? I'm sure I am not alone when I say this is one of the most frustrating parts of creating art. Your head is filled with beautiful images, but you just don't know how to get them on canvas, so the viewer can see what you see.

Speaking of beautiful images, have you ever been ready to drift off to sleep, when a fantastic image pops into your head? I've had ideas I would never imagine, and wonder, where do they come from?