priming & varnishing

Those are first and the final layers of any painting, and that's what I've been doing today. No photos to share at the moment, but the day's not over yet.

last sneak peek

This shall be the final glimpse of this particular painting until the exhibition. I completed it at the end of yesterday, but this photo is another detail shot of the unfinished piece, about two steps away from completion.

1 down. 21 paintings & 85 days to go.

Al Jamal III (unfinished)- acrylic on canvas, 30"x40"

camels, camels, camels

...They're what I've got on the brain.

Detail photo of painting underlayer:
Al Jamal III (unfinished)
acrylic on canvas, 30"x40"

venue

It won't be until this May that I'll be ready for a solo exhibition. But I have a couple of possibilities for venues lined-up in Doha at the moment. I'm waiting for a few folks to get back to me, but it doesn't take much to get me excited about this. I must simply remember to keep my head down and paint. It just feels like this part of me has been asleep too long.

imagination required

Turning everything upside-down and sideways when painting is always fun, especially when I'm using my imagination to fill in the empty spaces in-between. No pictures of painting underlayers for today, but I'm definitely having a good time.

Was excited to create paintings on linen, leaving the actual linen as the negative space. But alas, I discovered sun-bleached patch-work blocks once I ripped off the packaging on some of the pre-stretched linen canvasses. If it was more randomly scattered, I'd have happily incorporated the 'happy accidents' into the paintings I had in mind. But the way that the darker squares and rectangles have been left on the sun-bleached canvas, and the very noticeable contrast with which some have left their imprint...requires me to either imagine a different painting entirely where the quadrangles are incorporated, or continue with my original idea but paint in the negative space.

To be continued...

weekend entry

Drove up to the northern tip of Qatar and visited Al Shamal (which means "North") for the first time. The extensive road work didn't make for any good sight-seeing, but when it's completed it should be a very quick journey.

We were pleasantly surprised by the simple loveliness of the mangroves and the clear turquoise blue waters of the Persian Gulf.

We then stumbled upon a lovely family park right on the ocean and enjoyed a small picnic after a good session of trying out everything in the playground.

I was even surprised to find a herd of sheep and goats grazing by the fort-like Al Shamal Sports Club Stadium on our way back to Doha!

underlayer

Detailed shot of untitled triptych (3-panel piece) in progress. (Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, each panel 2'x3'.)

tree

Tree painting detail (still untitled).
(Acrylic on canvas, 2'x5')

rationing

Now that I spend more of my time focussing on one or two paintings a day for the exhibition, it's becoming more and more of a challenge to share photos of daily work without showing off the completed final piece.

Al Jamal series: No. 3 - acrylic on canvas (in progress)

As days go on, I will be getting stingier with photos, I think. At least until I can find enough time to do something on the fly; perhaps while waiting for paint to dry?

However, 'waiting for paint to dry' time is usually my queue to continue work on a differen piece; or sneak out of the studio for a few minutes to play with Sofia. Until then, here's another glimpse of the next layer of the third camel.

no. 3

Still untitled, this is the roughly sketched-in underlayer of the third camel painting in this series. (acrylic on canvas, 30"x40")

early spring cleaning

I am ever so grateful for Inspiration. But with the recent blessed onslaught of ideas, cleaning up after myself beyond just rinsing the brushes, changing the paint water and scraping off the palette became non-existent. It did become very difficult to manoeuvre between the ever-deepening stacks of canvasses leaning on what bare available wall there was left; and the ransacked stacks of once-carefully-piled books and boxes holding all-things-collected-and-saved-for-future-paintings. Perhaps I could have left the mess longer if more of my paintings were less than 3 feet high or wide or both...but I do like them big.

And don't even get me started on the tens (not 'hundreds', although once scattered by the wind or an errant sleeve, it feels like hundreds) of teeny tiny cut-out rice paper leaves I've been obssessing over for the "autumn" piece.

Needless to say, my desk is clear, my floor is bare, my elbows don't have rice-paper leaves stuck to them...and I'm ready to mess it all up again.

camels

I've been getting a lot of positive feedback about this piece. I remember agonizing over what to paint when I started it. But once I truly started enjoying myself, everything flowed. I'm quite excited to revisit and explore this as a series.

Al Jamal (or The Sassy Camel)
acrylic on canvas, 2008 (SOLD)

sleepless

1:30 am - Couldn't sleep, so I've just continued working on the new painting I started yesterday. I am enjoying the process of deciding how to dress my camel.

Perhaps it would be wise to give sleep another go now or the rest of the day may be a creative write-off.

(tentatively titled: Al Jamal II - acrylic on linen, 50cm x 100cm)

This is the same piece, but this photo was taken when I first began at 10 am yesterday. (I think it looks like the Loch Ness monster at this point.)

Sunday

A very busy but fun weekend! This photo is a close-up detail of a work-in-progress.

"untitled" - acrylic on canvas, unfinished

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

"poppies" - photo of painting detail; acrylic on canvas, 2'x3'

This is my creative entry for the last few days. I don't think it's cheating since I've been hard at work on this and the "autumn" piece. The "poppies" painting is near completion. I just have a few details to work on, then I have only 21 paintings and 105 days to go.

sneak peek

...still under construction.

"autumn" - acrylic & mixed media on canvas, 30"x40"

leaves, leaves, leaves

I'm really enjoying working on the "tentatively-titled-autumn" painting at the moment. It is an 'acrylic and mixed media on canvas' piece. And one of the layers I am currently working on involve many, many leaf-shapes cut out of Japanese origami rice-paper.