on painting and life matters

all packed and ready to fly off to new homes!

delighted I made several sales at the Fair, and even the day after a couple of new orders came in! so all in all a success

and I feel I can carry on making!

reishi spawn/sawdust mix with which I made a flattish surface for painting purposes, this is an attempt at making and using sustainable materials for art(projects)

the spawn was pressed between two glass panes, wrapped in clingfilm for a few weeks and when it had grown together forming a flat sponge-like square I unwrapped the foil and gently pulled it free from the glass plates and just got painting, using the indigo paint which to my surprise was absorbed, surprised because I had been told the mushroom-substance tends to ward off moisture, like a duck's back. I didn't like the positioning of the tree so I dabbed off most of the paint with tissues, painted yet again and still not content with the result a second dab and third layer felt okay, and then some stamp pressing using the blue alcohol based ink-cushions (Stayz On)

I like the layered effect of the 'tree-shadows'

about 0,5 cm thick

in between whatever I do a bird usually pops up

Art is restoration: the idea is to repair the damages that are inflicted in life, to make something that is fragmented – which is what fear and anxiety do to a person – into something whole.

 – Louise Bourgeois quote I found in Willemien de Villíers' website, such an interesting inspiring artist btw, her blog 

 

 

some of my own thoughts:

Painting is essentially about paint and the act of painting, how the paint behaves on the paper

I’m not used to painting human figures, I can paint an animal without thinking, but a human form is a struggle, so back to basics: an oblong torso, 2 arms sticking out 2 legs with/without feet, a head, especially the head I find difficult, the shape, size, tilt

I like painting hands

Being surrounded by a large garden is healing, which is why I have placed her in a/her garden with the dogs and flowers, two willows, the house and embryonic sons

artists are inspired by other artists

I have lately been painting female figures, why? maybe finally painting self as self [not in animal-guise]

this painting by far the most personal in a long time:

it is about motherhood

how almost all beings on earth are born from a mother, except hermaphrodite snails and seahorses

how the beings born from our wombs take over our minds - maybe that is why she doesn't have a proper head - how mother&child remain connected even if we don't want to be, how a dog always lives in the moment, how i sometimes wish i was a bird, how we all need/long for a home, how nature nurtures