Kauai Painting Revisited-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

One of my best art teachers in college often stated, "Never think something you've done is so good that you can't do it again," meaning that it was so precious it was beyond improvement. The main tree in this painting has been bugging me since I finished it last year (see post). I thought I was finished, and I didn't have the heart then to paint it out after so many hours working on it. Today, I was finally of a different mood, and I already feel better about it.

Kauai Hen-Final

© Ellen Blonder

I've spent the last couple of days adding details to the leaves and flowers, but it wasn't until I decided to put some sky behind some of the foliage to give the painting more depth that I felt finished.

Kauai Hen-Day 8

© Ellen Blonder

Working on the foliage details, which seem just as time-consuming on a small painting as on a large one somehow.

First Giclee Prints for Sale

Exciting news. The Ship Store Gallery in Kapa'a, Kauai, just put up two of my giclee prints for sale. They're my Kauai Roosters, which were posted while in progress on this blog in July, 2010, and June, 2009.

Kauai Hen-Day 7

© Ellen Blonder

Considering this painting is only 8 x 10 inches, this feels like slow progress for a week. I hadn't figured out the foreground plants carefully, so today was about redrawing them as much as painting details.

Kauai Hen-Day 6

© Ellen Blonder

Painting feathers all day, newly inspired by the attention to detail in Indian miniatures. This doesn't come close.

Kauai Hen-Day 5

© Ellen Blonder

 I just added detail to the feathers today, mostly painted with my synthetic brushes. I did try out my new paintbrush, acquired on my India trip, on the finest details. The artists make their own paintbrushes from squirrels that they feed a special diet. All the hairs on the brush curve in the same direction, and a single hair is the tiniest bit longer than the others, perfect for their exquisite miniature paintings. 

The artist who sold me the brush (for about $2) told me with one dip of the brush in paint, they can work for half an hour before needing to dip their brush again. For their miniatures, pigments are ground from stones and minerals and mixed with gum arabic. I can't do that with acrylic--the paint would dry up in the hairs--but it does create an extraordinarily fine line.

Kauai Hen-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

Today was about the plumeria flowers and making the foliage colors more opaque before I start adding details.

Kauai Hen-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Rather than painting groundcover flowers, I thought I'd sneak in some fallen plumerias. Just blocked in basic colors today.

Kauai Hen-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

Starting to underpaint, have to figure out the foliage and flowers I'd like to put around the hen, but first I had to get her beady eye.

Kauai Hen-Day 1

 

© Ellen Blonder

Kauai roosters just beg to be painted, but hens sit back and wait for you to notice. Here's the sketch of a patient hen on an 8 x 10-inch board. 

Late Christmas

© Ellen Blonder

It's actually after New Year's Day, and a pat resolution is to tidy up my desktops, both real and virtual. I never know what I'll find. Today, I discovered a computer file I forgot about, with some proposed repeat patterns that were never produced.

Something Red and Green

 

© Ellen Blonder

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE. Here's something red and green from India--doors in Jaipur, more specifically.

India-Ganesha Large and Small

© Ellen Blonder

Ganesha is everywhere and in every size, from the gigantic painting on a cement wall to a tiny icon over a doorway in Varanasi.

India-Textures

© Ellen Blonder

Even when ornament is weathered or absent, textures and patterns are around every corner in Varanasi.

India-Art Everywhere

© Ellen Blonder

Art abounds in India. In Varanasi, that includes the painted doorway along a random alley, and the extraordinary painting around the door to our bathroom at the Ganges View Hotel.