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The Painting Goes on March 27/2025
Well, here I am again talking about the same painting, "Pray The Devil Back To Hell". I explained in one of my last blogs what the title meant so I won't repeat myself. I think I am getting closer to the end. I have been working on the details all afternoon. I hate details! You know all those little niggley things that require a small brush and attention. In the old days, artists who had large studios also had students who were assigned those little details. The Artist would come in and do the faces or the big things. Sigh!!! I don't have students, just me. I have to stand at the easel with my brush and paint trying not to drip, smear or other wise ruin the whole painting.
I did discover one thing that I should have tried years ago. It is retardant liquid for acrylics. When you are painting faces, it is essential. Now I know this is where experienced artists are rolling their eyes. What a dummy. We knew about that for years. I knew too, I but just never tried it. Don't ask why. I don't know. I was even given some several years ago. I just put it away until today. It really allows you to paint with acrylics like they were oils for blending without the toxic fumes. My studio is a room in our apartment. If it was just me, I might take a chance and use oils. (There is nothing so wonderful as painting in oils). But my dear husband lives here too so I don't think it would be fair. I do open the window and close the door if I have to use a fixative or spray varnish but it is only rarely that I need to do that.
I digress though so to get back to my painting, I have finished almost all the faces and just have the Liberian flag and a few more details to do and it will be done. Hooray!!!!! I think I am really tired of this painting at this point. I really don't even know if it is good or a piece of trash! I must get it done and move on to my next painting, The Blue Stockings. I will tell you more about that when I start working on it. For now I must get back to my easel. Thanks again for listening to my musings.
In the Beginning I didn't know I was an artist or the art and art history were my passion for the first 50years of my life. I discovered this large thing about myself when I decided to volunteer at the Corcoran Gallery of Art ( still morn Its passing) and sign up for an Art History class at NOVA. A huge window opened up for me. I mean I really loved this stuff. I then began to attend Docent training at the Corcoran and studio art classes along with art history at Northern Va. Community College. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. Here I was doing something I discovered I absolutely was in love with but I also discovered "Kathleen Norris Stark, person". Pure Joy !
When I was an art student, part time, at the Corcoran , in m yearly 20's I really didn't know what being an artist meant. I was told to fall in love, get married, have babies and then come back and be an artist. It wasn't possible for a woman to do both! ( This was 1962 so take that for what it is worth.) Since a certain handsome young man wanted to marry me and I didn't know I could do both, I chose to get married, have three babies and forget about being an artist.
It wasn't until my youngest baby went off to college, that I started to think about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Then I found my passion, ART, and have never looked back Now I don't say that I am a great artist or even a very good artist. I do say that I love making art and I love sharing it with other people. I love being around those people who also love, love, love art the way I do. I think I would die if I didn't or couldn't make art. So now you know! I am an eccentric, bohemian , crazy81 year old woman who lives to make art and share it.
IF you feel the same way about art as I do, I would love to hear from you. Please look at my website and give me your thought as well. That is all for now. Aug 10, 2023
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