Friends 1

Welcome to my blog — a place to try to put into words what I have already put on paper or canvas. I’d love to have comments from other artists or interested parties. A synergy of ideas would be interesting. By the way, “Synergy” is the name of an art group I belong to that has a Facebook page.

When ideas come to me, if the urge is strong, I don’t ask why I have the idea, I just start drawing or painting. When the work is finished I analyze it based on artistic elements, not subject matter. However, the world wants to know “why”, so now comes the hard part.

I think all artists paint firstly for the joy of painting. Next come color decisions if the medium is watercolor. In the painting “Friends 1” I wanted that red hair contrasted with the yellow green of the background – a basically warm painting. I love that Gibson Girl hair — a stylized female that I was using as a feminine element, which I really think represents me.

The cat is mine, but how many meanings can a cat as a symbol represent? Here she represents a contrast (opposite) to the rooster. And why a rooster? I’m attracted and amused by the variety of fancy chickens. However, all the crossbreeding and gene manipulation might not be a good thing. More on contrasts and opposites later.

The eyes in the painting are important; eyes are a window to the soul. I was definitely influenced by the Klimt paintings I was reading about at the time I was painting this.