Monday, December 8, 2008

1/2 dozen new beginnings....


I love new beginnings (which would explain why New Year's Eve is still one of my favorite nights of the year...).  All six of these blocks are destined to become part of my "On The Ball" series.  I already have their dresses and ball's cut out and I hope to assemble them tomorrow and put the finishing touches on by the end of the week.  As you may have noticed, repetition is present in many of my paintings.  Many times I will cut nine of the same shape out of newsprint and collage them onto a panel and see where it leads.  In this case I have six separate blocks which all started out with the same pale blue base layer of wax but have already taken on very different moods from the layer of oil paints I applied, burnished off and then heat set.   As I add the newsprint dresses and balls and add faces, hair and legs each painting will become even more unique.  It's amazing to watch each piece become what it was meant to be (of course there is always one who ends up letting me know she was not meant to be at all)....

5 comments:

artslice said...

I love new beginnings too. I just have to ask, why 9? Is it a special number to you or more of a random number? These are the kinds of things that I think about in the middle of the night!

Sleepandhersisters said...

I too love repetition... someone once commented in a review on an exhibition I did that it was like supermarket shelf repetition. That made me smile.

I like how things are the same but different.

really nice to see some of your process and how things evolve.

hope you stay warm in your shearling.

Unknown said...

Your work is so original!! Always inspiring! Beautiful.

tangled sky studio said...

Brenda-it's not always 9 (but I do prefer odd numbers). I think it's a question of balance...when you are repeating an image you don't want your space too appear too cluttered or too sparse.
Katherine-The supermarket comparison is perfect...many things appear the same at 1st glance but in fact most things are the same but different.
Sue-thanks for stopping by...i just checked out your new to me blog (a cottage by the sea sounds awesome!)

Leililaloo said...

hmmm...new beginnings...that has a very inspirational and positive ring to it. I am curious to see where it leeds with your paintings.

I need to make some as well, except i lack the time right now.