January 5th, 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Well, as many of you know, creativity ebbs and flows.  Its a good thing.  A few posts back, I was wondering where mine went.  Now, its following me around... let me explain:  When I get a creative jag, sometimes its best if I don't ignore it. Yes, very good not to ignore it.
The other day, I made my hubby stop the car, turn around, and turn around again several times, just to get some pictures:  I had to get a shot of an old truck,  then an old car, and then a barn on the same highway, all the while dodging traffic.  I am lucky he listens and has learned not to ignore my creative spirit when it SCREAMS!  ;)
I am saving the truck pic for a later date, but the old car, I decided to paint on the same property of the barn (they are actually about 3 miles away from each other) and came up with this...

As you have probably heard, I LOVE old barns.  They have to have some personality, but there is something about preserving them in paint, or pen and ink that I need to do.  Its not just a WANT.  Its a NEED.  Doing my part to 'save' them somehow, before they are lost to either weather or wrecking ball.  They just won't be rebuilt in the wood and stone like we see nowadays, they will be rebuilt out of metal with no personality at all, because its more economical to do it that way.  So if you are a follower, prepare to see a lot of them.  Thanks for listening.  **stepping down off of soapbox now**

My new creative jag, (artists can identify, but I think the world thinks we are nuts) started the other day when my cousin sent me this.

Since I saw it, I have had this line of thought going in the back of my brain constantly, whether I am working, sleeping, wherever!
It wasn't going to let me go anytime soon until I did something about it.  Never mind that this is being run by a framing shop 500 miles from here.  Never mind that the paintings I usually do are 16 x 20, and the fundraiser is only asking for a 5x7, and I have never done such a small painting in my life!
HECK NO!  I have to run, not walk, to the art store to pick up a canvas panel, in 5x7, to do this!  Found out that they come in packs of three!  OK, so I have two to play with before I figure out if I am able to scale back to being able to paint something that size.
And, I just KNOW that the website on cute little puppies that I ran across about a month ago just HAD to have something to do with it because I had to save some of the photos that I saw!  Who is driving this carriage, anyway??  I think I have an Artistic Angel guiding me.
So, my eyes popped open this morning at 5:30am. Thats earlier than a workday.  This is SATURDAY!  I could sleep in!  I shut my eyes and willed myself to fall back to sleep.  But those little puppy pics were having NONE OF IT!   I was up at 6, making coffee and bee-lining it to the art room.
Apparently Artistic Angels paint with the birds.  (And have no patience!)
But before my hubby got up, and the coffee pot turned off, I finished these:

I am happy with the way they turned out, and I thank the Artistic Guiding Spirit that urged me along to use the gift that I am given.  To do good with and not evil! I will send them to be bid on and hope that some puppy somewhere is better off and finds a loving family that will spoil it rotten. I know my family has been blessed by rescued dogs!

Ok, so, I guess you are probably asking... there are only the two and the pack of canvasses numbered three.  That third one is just not coming along as I want it to, but I am letting it dry and going back for Round Two.  If  I can get something decent to come out of it, I will post.  If not, I will gesso it and do it another day.
Some other day when I awake before the birds and HAVE a wild paint brush bugging me.