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Saturday, July 21, 2012

Coming Up For Air...

Cityscape Paris, watercolor , 7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
with another portrait relief piece. Christopher took a lot out of me, portraiture does. I'm too intent upon achieving a likeness a mother can recognize. So drawings like Mrs.L's Passion, Brutus, Coconut creme pie and Paris lighten me up. Eventually I'll get back to my guys and JD. Right now they face the wall.

I should be facing the wall. I lost my wedding band. I'm sick over it. I tore the house apart. I lost it here, for I seldom wear it. But it's no where to be found. On the bright side, my shoes are organized and I finally made a Goodwill bag of all those fabulous stilettos that have been sitting there since the knee became an issue. Shit. I hate loss; this kind  plagues me forever. If I had been more careful. If I had locked it up. If. You girls know.

This watercolor did take my mind off of it a bit. If it was larger it might have taken it off entirely? This watercolor would translate well onto a large canvas to join New York.



23 comments:

  1. I like them very much, what colors, what lights. I,ve been to see them for a long time. Wonderful. !!

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    1. Thanks Eve. The hustle of the city is a fun subject. Unfortunately I live in the suburbs so I'm not influenced by the hub-bub as much as I would like. It takes travel to get me there and we're beach bums, which inspires paintings with an entirely different rhythm. Thank you.

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  2. I like these 2 paintings a lot. They both have the same qualities, they have great colors, contrast, compositions and they got a abstract feeling to them.

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    1. Thanks Roger. Acrylics is how I think--and definitely in the abstract. When I think about it, after the Impressionists painting life in the fleeting moment, (fleeting light), art had to move towards the abstract. As technology advanced, the moment had to become more blurred as time passed faster. I do wonder why there are different camps of opinion with regards to abstraction and traditional styles. Abstraction has become traditional. Traditional is still holding on to the past. Sometimes I think I think too much:))

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  3. I turn my back for one second ... and you crash through the sound-barrier. Everything from skyscrapers to horses; dogs to nephews ... and finally, and this takes the cake ...Cakes (and me on a diet).

    Nice to see the smoke coming off the paint brushes again.

    Now you know I'm not the sharpest pebble on the beach when it comes to abstracts ... well I get, I love the cityscape :0).

    By the way ...I'm back and its stopped raining.

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    1. I'm sorry for the wedding band,Linda!
      In Italy there is prayer to St. Anthony to find lost things! Works well...
      because after praying, the person who lost it, it relaxes and after some time the object jumps out maybe where it should be!
      I became crazy for my identity card and when I was about to ask for a copy ... I found where it should be! We had searched everywhere in the house, Danilo and myself, but could not see it!

      I walk on sneakers for years, since 1996.
      This has changed my whole way of dressing .. I seem always ready for sport! Sometimes I'm sorry but I think that "I still walk on this earth" !


      Your watercolors cityscapes are full of expressive power!!!
      Lovely artworks "Full of Life", as the life of big cities (the nearest big city to me is Milan)!

      Happy Sunday!

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    2. I took your advice and prayed to Saint Anthony. The hope that prayer gave me cleared my mind and let me fall asleep instead of lying in bed trying to remember where I saw it last. What was I wearing? Did I take it off? Etc. Tonight I'll try Konstantina's Saint. Till then, it occurred to me to immortalize my stilettos in paint. Instead of giving them away right away, I thought a still life or two might be fun. I did love strutting myself around in those things. Now, I wear my Pumas most of the time. But I really don't mind. In stilettos one must take tiny steps and it takes forever to get someplace; in sport shoes one can stride. I'm where I want to be in a flash AND MY FEET DON'T HURT:))

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    3. How abstract are these? Yes, not every detail is precisely noted, but they are suggested enough that you can tell what you're looking at. Are these abstracts or are they just loose paintings that let the viewer fill in whatever details they need? What these painting have are a sense of speed, the speed of a city street. Quite appropriate.

      Yes, I'm back searching for relief from the tedium of portraiture by looking at other subjects. It's absolutely necessary. As much as I would love to achieve a high degree of skill in portraiture, I don't think I've got the stamina. But this is what this year is about. I'm having a year of discovery with regards to subject and medium. I'd like to narrow down my repertoire as you have.

      Glad to have you back. I'm glad it stopped raining. Here it's in the 100's one day and sunny, the next is high sixties and torrential rains. Needless to say we're living with stuffed sinuses from all the mold and mildew and netti pots are more important than lost rings--if you believe that, don't.

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  4. Oh Rita, I laughed loud when I read your comment. We have a special Saint for our lost things too. Saint Fanourios. We make a special pie too, like an offer in return for lost item. And it works as well, for exactly the same reason… or at least I’ve always thought so. If you want the recipe, Rita I’ll be glad to sent it to you. I’m so sorry about your wedding band. I’m sure it will appear eventually. But the paintings... are just magnificent!!!
    Warm regards.

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    1. Linda, Konstantina, Linda, the name's Linda. Rita must have given you quite a belly laugh for you to have lost your place. Rita gave me a laugh and hope. I did pray to Saint Anthony last night. I told him he didn't know me, but I needed all the help I could get finding this missing heirloom.
      Tonight I'll pray to Saint Fanourios, you can't have too many Saints in your corner. As for the paintings, I don't about magnificent, but Paris did give me a lift.

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    2. Sorry Linda. It was the time-quite late- and a little bit the laughs for the saints matter. I lost my track, obviously. But, the part about the paintings is in place 100%! And of course the recipe is still on. :-)
      Cheers.

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    3. I understood Konstantina.No worries. I wasn't offended in the least. I got the whole picture. I've been in it myself.

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  5. Linda!
    Wow! Wow! Did I say "Wow!" Bravo!
    These works have everything I love about a piece of art! Passion, Movement, Color, Excitement, Drama, Enthusiasm and most of all the soul of the artist! You!
    Simply the best! Better than all the rest.
    The "heck" with the portraits! If somebody wants an image that looks like the model take a photo! If somebody else wants a work of art let them check out these two fabulous pieces.
    "Keep on working, freely, and furiously and you will make progress!" Paul Gauguin
    All the being said good luck with your portraiture class. You are an artist! Learning the craft involved in "copying an image" will come with hard work and practice. Learning to become an artist involves the heart more than the mind. Celebrate the artist within you. I do every time I visit your blog. Your rock Linda. Your paintings are exceptional. Again, Bravo!
    Take care.
    Your art buddy,
    Michael

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    1. Michael I have to take you home with me. Your praise is overwhelming. Thank you. Portraiture is a bit heavy and serious and drags me down a bit except when I'm painting loved ones. Being on our own with our kin scattered over the states, painting them brings them closer. It's like I'm touching them when I make my brush strokes. These others are a celebration of being able to do what you can do.

      The portraiture class will be fine--I'll pick up a few hints--I'll case the association and see if I want to get more involved. Left on my own, I'd stay in the studio forever. At times it's a lonely place. It wouldn't hurt for me to get out with peers every once in a while. So I do have two reasons for going.

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  6. These two paintings are absolutely awesome, Linda!!! SO loose and painterly!!! I sure hope you find your ring! It's probably right in front of you somewhere...it always is.! Think!!!
    Anyway, again, LOVE these paintings!!

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    1. Not always Hilda. Sometimes things are just gone. But art helps and lifts you to another place where nothing else matters but the color, the stroke, the action. Thank you for your encouragement.

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  7. Sorry about the ring. Hope it finds it's way back.

    The painting is terrific. So's its big brother, NYC.

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    1. Me too. I'm making myself crazy cleaning out drawers.
      Thanks Jean. I do jump around a bit with my painting, but I'm really quite reliable otherwise except with jewelry.

      Oh I found Sketch Club. I web searched it since it wasn't in the apps store. Very interesting. I don't have the hang of it at all yet. Unlike you, I don't take to these things as a duck to water, but I will. It's got to be more rewarding then playing Scrabble. I really suck at that game when there's a wizard involved. I mean what kind of word is QI? And since when is LOX not a word? The computer obviously has never been to a delicatessen. I have to get a scrabble dictionary.

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  8. I like both of these paintings..the 2nd one really speaks to me..it would lift up any room.
    I recently "lost" my (expensive) turquoise bracelet. I was sick over it, because I was very convinced that it was on the street between a restaurant and my car. I found it though, days after I lost it, in a weird place in the bedroom. Apparently it fell off there instead of the street (thank goodness!). It really consumed my thoughts for awhile...so, I understand why and how you are bummed out. I hope you have the same good luck and your ring resurfaces!

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    1. Thanks Celeste. I do too. I like the rush of the city and that's really what the subject is and the manner of painting.

      I may just do Paris in the large size--sometime in the future. For now I am sick over this ring--headache, stomach ache, remorse, self flagellation for being careless, the whole bit. I hate being such a material girl, but with this economy one like to hold on to whatever treasures they have IN CASE.
      I had a similar story about my gold bamboo bracelet, (The design was like a stalk of bamboo, so pretty. My dad gave it to me for my seventeenth birthday). I thought I lost it at a potential clients house and called her up and asked her to look. She was so snippy--acted like I was accusing her of having found it and was lying to me so she could keep it--I may have had that intonation--she hung up. Shortly after we sold our house. The Spring day we moved out-- as Ellis and I were sadly walking out of the door for the last time--there was the bracelet on the side of the walk. It had fallen into the snow bank as I had walked to my car to go to that appointment. I felt the find was a sign from my dad,that life would be okay where ever we went from there. I do have a bit of the romantic in me, Capricorn or not:))

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    2. Jewelry means more when it comes from someone you love too...! I loved the story about the Bamboo bracelet. I could identify. I'm sending up positive thoughts that your ring appears soon. :)

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  9. Your lost ring story reminds me of losing one of my diamond stud earrings. It was screw-on, but loose, always tightened it every day [I lived with them in my ears] One day, heading out for a ride in the park, it felt loose, but I didn't tighten it. Somewhere it disappeared, and it snowed the next day, and that lasted for weeks. So that was the end of the earrings, as a pair anyway. Gone, too, are all my spike heels. :) I had one pair of Dior's with a 6-inch heel; I couldn't walk in them - only wore them to the symphony when I was sitting most of the time. Ah, Vanity!

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    1. Sounds like my shoes; they were only good for a couple of hours of strutting. Now, I'll put a modified pair on only if where we're going has valet parking.

      Life is a series of losses a lot more serious than pieces of jewelry. Just look in the mirror.

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