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San Jose, California, United States
Some paintings far surpass my expectations and some are scary awful, but it's always fun.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

"F" Feather-Ode to Calvin


When my parakeet, Calvin, sheds his feathers, I collect and save them; they're just too beautiful to discard. By now I have enough to make a new bird! Calvin is about 9 years old and such a cheerful little guy whose chirps and songs cheer up dreary winter days. This painting is layer upon layer of masks and washes. I used cerulean, French ultramarine, indigo, phthalo blue, sap green, and permanent rose. The green and rose don't show much after at least 8 washes and 6 or 7 layers of masking and 2 final very dark washes of ultramarine and indigo. Size is 10"x14".

4 comments:

  1. Janice, this is a very beautiful piece and it must have taken great patience with all the layers. You've done fine job of directing our eye around the painting with the light pattern and I get the feeling of feathers blowing in the wind. I hope you plan to put this piece in a show.

    I liked your abstract piece -- wow! That would be far harder for me to do than something more representational.

    The egg piece is a lovely and delicate representation. I like your border that pulls it all together. Speaking of eggs, have you seen Katherine Cartwright's blog. She did an eggshell series that is yummy.
    http://k-cartwright.blogspot.com/
    She also has a fascinating blog as she is a workshop teacher, extremely well educated, and strikes up some major art discussions.

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  2. I really love this. I could just imagine a fairy flying through it!

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  3. Thanks, Mary and Pattie! It took several days to get through all the layers, and I wasn't sure what i would see when the mask came off!

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  4. Janice this is really wonderful and perfect for "F" . You can tell that this took a lot of work and it shows. It kept pulling me in and thinking wow how she do that and man she must have Patience!! It's Beautiful.

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