finding joy

I've been in the process with this newest painting on paper for a bit, now.  her name is "Finding Joy", and she's been hiding from me.  today I finished her, go me!  *edit- now that I've brought her upstairs, I see more that needs to be done

I'm very proud of a lot of parts of her.  her eyes pop.  her lips were a struggle, but I came out victorious.  her hair is fun.  and the bubbles... well, I didn't think they'd come out nearly as well as they did.  I love the bright pink I added in other places to tie in her hair color.  it really livens up the piece.

until later,

Jenny

another painting on paper

last year on mothers day I was down and created flowers.  this year I was too weepy to move off the couch.  today I pulled myself up enough to go to the studio to work on my feelings.  I had a reference photo I wanted to work with, but the feeling wasn't right, so I chose a moodier pose and started.

 two hours in and letting her dry

"she came from the fire"
still in progress

she wears her heart on her sleeve; has walked thru hell, been tampered with, and still cares deeply for others.  but now she tries to protect her tender soul.  the cracks in her heart are mended with gold and make her who she is.  and she is more beautiful because she has loved and been hurt deeply.

working with her has made my heart a little lighter.  she is dark and moody, and thats what needed to be let out of my soul, even for a little while.

until later,

Jenny

some more work

I've been enjoying painting large on paper since my class last week.  I've worked on 3 more gals, to create a bit of a collection.

my class project

"The Dancer"

sold

"Her Strength" 

"An Inner Thunder"

"Looking Deeper"

you can tell these women all have their stories to bear.  you can ask for them to tell you of their life;  witness them, fully.  the depth and layering you can see in person is a joyous thing for me!  you just cant see it all in a photo, on a screen.

I plan on making more.  so many more.

until later,

Jenny

class work

I did a class in Around the World Through Art today.  this is week 2 and we are in Spain with the artist Emma petitt!

I was immediately attracted to Emmas work, as it reminds me of my own style.  check out her incredible work!  she creates layers in acrylic with bold colors and textures with pencils and other tools, and mostly paints females.  her class had us painting a flamenco dancers face in wonderful shades.

you can find her painting here

I chose to look at other royalty free images of dancers and found this beautiful photo that I chose to crop so her face was largely the only thing in frame.  I wanted part of her hand in there as well.

photo by mojpe on pixabay

I didn't get any photos early on in my process, but dove right in with the juicy painting!

in process

 The Dance

I'm happy she came out the way she did.  in this class we used a bigger brush than I'm used to, to create a looser feel.  I let go of my expectations, so am thrilled to get this result.  I was hesitant at first, but I told myself "you've done this before, you don't need to go back over the video step by step, dive in!".  I was second guessing myself, not giving it a chance to come naturally.  as soon as I gave myself permission to be an artist in my own way, it came to me.

I love how soft her face is.  I'm glad I put yellow in the red background to soften that up a bit, too.  and I'm glad I didn't give up on her hand and added a pinky.

I need to buy better paper!  this was regular watercolor paper and it warped with the juiciness and layers, and a layer of paper came off when I took off the painters tape.  it's ok, I want to keep this one, but if I had wanted to sell it I would have been upset!  live and learn.

until later,

Jenny