wriggling out

chloe ~ watercolors and oil pastel on muslin

i didn't paint much last week; it was a week of selling stuff that i no longer use. on the one hand it seems almost miraculous the way money just appears in your paypal account, and on the other, you know you've spent a lot of time doing stuff to make it happen!

i think that my creek painting days are coming to an end... it's getting shady out there and the temps have really dropped. so these may be the last of the creek people. i guess then they'll be art room people. ; )


i have been stitching a lot. when i can't focus on painting, i love to sit and do the running stitch. i've finished the heart since i took this, but i still have more to do on the tie. this is silk from recycled saris on walnut ink stained muslin. one thing i've learned this summer is that walnut ink quickly fades in sunlight. it won't take long before this will look like plain 'ol unbleached muslin...

isabel ~ watercolors and oil pastel on muslin

back to painting... i used the paint that bled through the page from chloe for much of isabel. i like this idea. working on muslin is surely my first love... i love the way it looks so much!

dana ~ watercolors and oil pastel on old book page


here's my whole set-up for painting creek people. everything i need fits right in the watercolor case - daniel smith travel brush (the black thing), paper stump for blending, and a piece of oil pastel.


i also painted a creek person in this book. i got it on my trip - it's the sweetest little book of line drawings by matisse. i'm not going to paint on all of the pages - just some of them... it's very interesting doing this...

watercolors and oil pastel on book page


i like most of the drawings in the book way too much to paint over them...

i'm going to change the way i respond to comments... i'm going to e-mail my response to each person instead of posting it here - unless someone asks a question, and then i'll post the answer here. just so you know... : )

i'm going out of town again this week! roxanne and i are going to ashland tomorrow to play, and then later in the week i'm going south to visit friends...

i hope you have a beautiful week!

* * *

A crazy life, what! Particularly in view of the fact that I was supposed to be at work on the great American novel. Now and then, of course, I did write a few pages... My dodge now was watercolors. I dabbled in them, as the expression goes. It was a joy to go on turning them out like a madman - perhaps because I didn't have to prove anything, either to the world or myself. I wasn't hepped on becoming a painter. Not at all. I was simply wriggling out of the straitjacket.

~ Henry Miller, 'To Paint is to Love Again'

XO