Updates

It's been a long time since I last sat down to write something about what I've been working on, whether here or in my actual sketchbook. Since my last post, I've completed two more pieces, and although they are technically all part of the "Chasing Home" series, I think that really the series started on the first of those two most recent works.

I feel like I've really found my voice with the last two, and I think the piece with the nest (that's what I've been calling it) was really more of a practice piece. I'm not that happy with the color palette at all, but I loved the process, and I think that's the main thing I will take away from that piece. In fact i think I am going to sell it to a friend's husband so he can surprise her with it for Christmas. She loved it, so I know it will be going to a good home. In fact the more I've thought about it, the more I think I will make a newer version, one that is more clearly defined.

Beyond the advancements I feel I've made in refining the process, I think the treehouse painting (will post pics later) is also a milestone, in that it was the first painting I've made in this series where I was thinking of the emotional content, at the same time as the visual content.

Up till this point, each piece has been the product of an idea that literally popped into my head and that I just seized on to bring it into reality. With the treehouse, I got the idea of the large tree when I found a leaf that would be ideal to work with a piece of wood I already had, but from that point on, the subject of the painting came fully from my ideas of community and acceptance and belonging. And everyone that has seen it has said it's their favorite. Although I haven't asked why, I do wonder if it's because the emotional content is so much higher on that one. I have to ask some opinions.