Sunday, January 24, 2010

Deja vu, I did a Monet!




If these two painting look familiar, it's because they are. Didn't Monet paint waterlilies over and over? Well I painted my zoo friends of last week again. This time in a different size from the color versions and they are done in grey scale.


This week I had a show entry deadline that was due yesterday. It was for the Eccles Black and White Competition. If you recall, one of my goals recently was to have a piece ready for a show earlier than the deadline date. With that in mind, I tried to think up something I would like to paint for this black and white show. My mind was blank (that was last Monday). The next day it was blank, and by Wednesday, blankety blank blank! I was getting a little frustrated. So I thought I ought to see if I had any frames around that might stir my imagination. (I tend to buy frames when they are on close-outs). I found two that I have had around for awhile but never felt inspired to paint anything for. They were heavy, nice black frames with a linen liner. I thought they looked like a jungle animal should be in them. So... I thought hmmm, what if I just took my giraffe and monkey drawings and resized them and painted them in black and white/grey)?


I spend quite a bit of time working on my compositions for paintings and always save my sketches and drawings. Anyhoo, I thought the giraffe and monkey would go very well in the black frames. They are a little different from the first ones. I wasn't out to paint them exactly alike. I gave the paintings different names than the color versions too. The giraffe one is 'Standing Taller' and the monkey one is titled 'An Unexpected Friendship'. I used charcoal, acrylic paints, watercolor markers and a crackle glaze.


Guess what? I even had them all finished by Thursday night and delivered them yesterday (Saturday). No last minute frenzied painting for me this week!


Now I have to wait and see if they get accepted because it is a juried show. Speaking of juried shows... I got one painting juried into the zoo show, the monkey one. The award reception is this coming Friday. I am crossing my fingers it wins an award. I will let you know ok? Well... I will let you know if I win something... if I don't, I probably won't say anything ;-)

4 comments:

anotherlinda said...

I love that one! I will keep my fingers crossed for you and I do think it will win an award! Linda

Unknown said...

you were right about the frames. love reading the commentary behind the work. How about a work featuring boys shooting out car windows with bb guns?

Catherine Darling said...

Hi Linda,
Thanks for crossing your fingers! Unfortunately I didn't win anything.

Catherine Darling said...

Adam, I will have to think on that one... I am not sure I have recovered from the original incident, me being anti-bb-gun in the first place.