Still Life Memories

Tonight in class we didn't actually have a painting setup to work on. Instead we got a lesson in how to create our own painting surface using a mixture of gesso and marble dust, which we applied to watercolor paper. This takes a while to dry fully, so we are supposed to bring them back next week to do a painting on them.

After we finished Christina began some demos that I have already seen her do in past classes. Since this class is my weekly escape, and right now my life seems to be too busy to do artwork except when I have class as an excuse, I didn't want to "waste" the whole class without doing any art, so I decided to paint a picture.

But of course I had no setup to paint! I thought I could pull up my online photo gallery on my Blackberry as I had last week - but I could not get an internet connection, and have been unable to get one all day.

So then I decided to make something up "out of my head". Of course I am absolutely rotten at this and would only dare attempt the simplest of things in this fashion. I am just one of those sorts who needs to see the object in front of me. But I felt I could at least attempt a still life if I kept it simple. This was done on a sheet of blue Canson, 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, smooth side.

Tonight we are expecting another awful winter storm - snow overnight, turning later to sleet, ice, freezing rain ... In other words the nastiest sort of storm there is. It's still January, and I'm sick of winter. So I felt an urge to paint something with a bit of a springy feel, with springy colors. So this is what I came up with out of my head.

I need to be prepared and carry photo references with me or something, as making things up is just not something I'm good at. I'm in awe of people who can create incredible and detailed sorts of painting just straight out of their imagination.