Working on my calendar

All of a sudden it is the end of October, and the holiday-season is rapidly approaching. So it is chaos here, trying to get things ready for my market, as well as still doing renovation-work in the house.

I have been making calendars since 2013, and the last few years I always used images of the paintings I made that year. But this year was a problem for me. I only finished 2 paintings. Yes, two... First of all because of the move to our new house and all the endless renovation work, and secondly because I have been painting really large, which does take a lot more time to finish.

So I had to be creative, and looked back through images of older paintings that I hadn't already used in previous calendars. Plus, my new paintings being so large, I was able to use several different images from one painting. I haven't completed the calendar yet, but it's getting there. Here are a few months that I have finished:

Meanwhile, I've also started painting some rocks and boxes. It's still in the beginning stages, but one box is almost finished. I call it my "Hundertwasser"-box, because I used the work of Hundertwasser as my inspiration. At least for the coloured part. I got carried away a bit, it was so much fun to do :-) Here's a view of my worktable:

And last but not least I have also been working in our toilet. It is finally starting to come together. It just needs some detailwork and then I can call it quits. I'll share pics from start to finish when I'm done with it.

Well, that's all for now. I just need to share some funnies with you. Sorry most of them are about Trump, but there are so many hilarious ones circulating on the net lately :-)

Oh, this last one, it just makes me laugh every single time I see it. You just gotta love the people who create these :-D Even though it's a very serious matter, and I'm still terrified that somehow he's going to manage to win these elections (thinking about Brexit here ....) it is good to be able to laugh away the tension...

I'm linking to Paint Party Friday, looking forward to see what everyone's been doing these last weeks. Thanks for your visit, hope you're having a great day and a beautiful weekend ahead of you! See you next time ♥ ♥ ♥

Quick post

I was wondering whether I should post this week, since time has been flying again and I didn't get much done artwise. But still, I did do something, so here's a quick share of what I've been up to:

Another journalplay with markers and words:

This is meant for Inktober, although I do not even come close to drawing something every day. Also, it might look not very "inky", but it definitely is. I made the background ages ago, and all I did now was draw and write with markers.

Here's another one:

I love using these longer texts, my journal almost becomes a kind of poetrybook that way :-)

And today I finally worked in our toilet again. I had been wanting to figure out first how to proceed, but it took too long, and today I figured I'd just grab my brushes and my paints and start somewhere. Anywhere. And I had so much fun that I didn't really want to stop anymore. But alas, life got in the way again.... I wish I had a week of uninterrupted time alone, with nothing to do but paint. For me at this moment that would be heaven ....

Here are a few images of our walls:

I need to make sure all the eyes in my figures are turned away from the toilet, lest someone would feel uncomfortable sitting there ;-)

Okay, that's it for the art part. Now for the funny part :-)

 hahahaa.... Love these, especially the cats and the Trump one :-D

Well, thanks for your visit, it was wonderful having you here and I hope you are having a glorious day and lots of time to do something you love in the weekend! Take care and see you next week ♥ ♥ ♥

Finished painting!

I finished my large canvas! It took a while to get all the final details right, but then all of a sudden I knew it was ready.

I am really happy with how the colours came out. For a while there I was worried it was going to be too dark. But I managed to lighten it up quite a bit, and now I feel much better with it.

It only needs a few coats of varnish and a hanging system in place, and I can bring it to the gallery :-)

I called it : "Carry me away", and as with most of my intuitive paintings, there is a story behind it. Around the time I started moving from background to finding images, there had been a series of terrorist attacks, and right after I heard from the attack in Nice, where a terrorist ran his truck over hundreds of people, I found this couple in my painting. At first I had the idea they were seeking shelter with each other, trying to hide from the horror of the world.

But as the painting progressed I found I didn't want to think about terror and pain and loss and hatred anymore. I wanted to create a kind, loving world, and the images for this presented themselves to me. When the horrible things people do to one another get too much for me, I want to go to a world like this. The colors, the animals, the peaceful atmosphere make me happy and "carry me away". Hence the title of the painting :-)

As always I´ll take you through the process of this painting from the beginning to the end. I managed to do less layers on this one, but it´s still a LOT of pictures, so if you just want to see the finished painting, you can skip this part and scroll to the end of this post :-)

Here´s how it started: some leftover paint from other projects put on my canvas with different tools:

My favorite part: start of the dripping :-)

adding of the cooler colours:

I really liked this, and afterwards I think maybe I should've just stopped there. But when I don't see figures, I need to move on. And so I did:

bringing in contrast by adding some black

and some white

Using transparant colours and losing too much of that beautiful blue ....

Trying to get some of that blue back but not really succeeding .... It's definitely in the ugly phase right now ....

I want to start finding figures before I ruin it even more, so I add random black lines all over my canvas.

And yes, it helps :-) I see a shoulder, and an arm, and another shoulder, and a beak. So I bring out the figures:

Here's the couple, the first thing that I found. They're looking kinda bewildered and sad I think (at least more so than in the final phase).

Finding another figure, and yes: a dog! I don't really want to bring him out because I have no idea how to paint a dog, but he insists on being there ... So I just go with it. 

Another bird, and giving her some hair

I didn't really know what to do with the right bottom corner, so I decided to put some leaves and plants there. I had to stop before I was ready with its stem, hubby came by and looks kinda funny at my painting so I hasten to say it is not ready yet. Thought so, he says, you forgot the head. It was only then that I realized it looked just like a body with a long neck and no head.... At first I thought maybe I should just make another person out of it, but in the end I decided it had to go ... as did the other girl's long hair ...yuk!

Still not sure what to do with that corner, and in the end I decide to go with a fish....

And another bird, why not?

working on his face ....

ughhh :-(

Kept changing his face, and got so caught up in it I forgot to take in between pictures. 

some more fish, another plant ....

Decided it was too dark and too chaotic. I needed to quieten it down and lighten it up.

Hmm, not enough. More white added:

When I had this I couldn't wait to bring more colour into it, and I just kept layering colours and totally forgot to make pictures. This is the last in-progress pic that I have. 

And this is the finished canvas:

"Carry me away" - acrylics on canvas - 1m x 1m - 39,4"x 39,4"

Phew ....! If you're still here, you might just as well look at my funnies for this week and have a laugh :-D

 oh, look at him! Poor dog .... 

 ouch ....

oh yesss ....

 *grin*

Can't leave you without a Trump-one, can I !? ;-D

Well, that's it for now. I have been doing some ink drawings too, but this post is already way too long, so that'll be for next time. Linking up to my friends at Paint Party Friday, as always.

Thanks for your visit, take care of yourself and have a splendid weekend! See you next week ♥ ♥ ♥