Friday, October 20, 2006

Sienna with Buttons and Other Stuff

A cold front passed through last night, and it was chilly this morning. Perfect for wearing my brand new sweater. As promised, here are a couple of pictures. My faithful photographer Mac did the honors, but he doesn't really understand color, so the first one shows Sienna looking a little too orange.



Here's a closeup to show the buttons. I got them at Hancock's (no time for treasure hunting at flea markets right now). They are brass with brown glass eyes. They are kind of heavy, so on the wrong side, I sewed in thin, flat shell buttons, to reinforce them.



It's fall break at the university, so I did get some work done in the studio today. Here's the ugly thing that was driving me crazy. This is how I left it on Tuesday:



I worked on it today, and even though I'm not really satisfied, I guess you could say it's finished. The best thing about this painting is it led to the next one.



Here's the next one. Obviously not finished. Because I'm not going to paint again until next Tuesday, I wanted to use up the paint on my palette. Also, I wanted to redeem myself from the previous painting. Much looser. This is how I want to begin the final painting with all the kids in the composition. I really like the drips, but I always paint them out. I'm going to try to make myself keep them in and let this be a juicy painting.



Friends, I wish you had been here last night. Once again we watched Live Aid with some friends (this time at THEIR request, and no one really got drunk). I cooked Country Captain, a sort of southern version of chicken curry, in the crockpot, and made homemade brownies. MMM. This time I paid attention to some other bands besides Queen (the best though). The Who did a great job, especially on "Won't Get Fooled Again", and Elton John was really entertaining. Not that I'm a George Michael fan, but he covered "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me", and delivered a great performance. In case you're wondering how I can watch that concert over and over, the entire thing is 16 hours long, and I haven't seen every performance in it.

I hope everyone has a happy weekend!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sienna is amazing! Just like you in her! You should be more than proud of yourself!
Do I have to say orange is my coloure! Yep, little envy I am!

Susan said...

COUNTRY CAPTAIN! I haven't had it in years! I should get Mom's recipe for it and make it some time. She always pulled it out for fancy dinners (which was rare- there are 4 of us kids).

I can commiserate on the frustrating painting. One kid in my painting class last semester thought I was hysterical because sometimes I would paint and swear. A lot. Those were the days I packed it in early. Sometimes you can't turn it around and you have to come back to it later. I like what you did with it- impressive. Usually, on the "painting and swearing" days, I just want to throw it out the window.

vtwopoint5 said...

What a beautiful job on the sweater - it looks great on you!

I think the hair on the painting is very nice even if the painting frustrated you. I like his face too.

And now I want some brownies....:)

Beth said...

Beautifu, beautiful and beautiful. I love the sweater and showed your blog to Kelle and now it's on her list of must knits. Do you ever paint for other people? i'd love to pay you to paint my kids - that is of course when you're done with your own.

Anonymous said...

Ooooohhhhh! Your Sienna is GORGEOUS! I love that color, but cannot pull it off...wish I could! You did an awesome job!