The Blooming of a Bird of Paradise; In the Studio

Here's a quick peek into the process of a small w-i-p painting using sennelier and mission watercolor on Yupo paper.

 It is definitely a medium with a mind of its own. 

I'm a bird nerd, so you know the Bird of Paradise is one of my favorite tropical flowers. 

This flower symbolizes staying open to new possibility and seeking freedom wherever you can find it. It's also given in congratulations and in recognition of gracefully getting through a sticky situation.

 

Have you worked on Yupo?

It can be tricky, but I like things with a challenge and unique final outcome.

What do you like about it? Let me know in the comments.

Stay tuned for the finished piece. I'll be showing it during the Polk Museum of Art's Mayfaire by the Lake fine art festival in Lakeland next weekend with my other watercolor work.

 

Have a colorful day,

National Coffee Day?

Lately, I use cashew or coconut milk in my coffee. I try to use more of the milk to cut back on the actual amount of coffee I consume. Our mugs are enormous, bowl-like chalices of java, because who can get sufficient caffeine from a normal mug? Yeah, coconut and cashew milk.
We go through a lot of it.


They say today is coffee day, but sadly for my adrenals, I don't find too many days when it is not a coffee day. 

So, I'll just have to find another way to make it extra coffeeish.

I thought about painting with coffee, but thought I'd just do you a favor and share this guy instead.
It's totally his thing. 

This is one of my favorites fromBrazilian artist Dirceu Veiga. Go to his website and look at his fun work. http://www.dveiga.com/  You can find him on Facebook, as well.

Click here to visit Veiga's website.

How do you take your coffee?

Passion Flowers

 My entire life, it seems like I've been made to feel guilty for my gusto.
When I am particularly "on fire" for something, it's inevitable that someone will make a negative comment on my feistiness regarding said subject or cause, and trust me, there are lots of them:

The special needs population (intellectual and physical disabilities)
poverty, sexism, gay rights, military personnel, animal rights, animal rescue, ecological preservation, (this list can go on, and on, and on...)


 People that feel deeply are used to being told how "sensitive" they are.

Passion Flower work-in-progress

It's perceived to be a bad thing. But think about it, most often when people are chiding someone for being sensitive, it's a way of dismissing the "sensitive" person's feelings or reactions to justify their own actions or to subdue the "sensitive" person.
Any time someone criticizes (or praises!) someone else, it's usually their shit that they are addressing.

 Therefore, I don't bristle (too much) anymore when someone comments on how sensitive I am or how focused I can get on something. Most of the time, I take it as a compliment.

 But just yesterday, insights on my facebook page  told me that someone took the time to
 click "hide all posts" after I shared this photo and link.

Driving with Colleen

So, um, whoever did that... really?

Seriously?

I'm still posting fundraiser things in memory of someone's dead mother to help cancer patients.

I do not care if you like it. It's my page, and you are a stick-in-the-mud. 

 I post all kinds of stuff on my art page that isn't exactly my art, but it's all stuff that I'm passionate about. Because that's what my art is about. 

 I am also able to be a passion empath. I can take the energy of someone else and amplify it into something even brighter and louder.

I am able to share my knowledge and help their passion and enthusiasm make it out into the world. I am proud to be passionate about something that totally deserves to be lauded and have the ever-loving light shared out of it.

There's a reason your heart skips a beat when you come upon an awesome inspiration.

You were meant to live your passion.

I came across wild passion flowers on my trail run one morning and was so overcome by them I had to stop and marvel at their strange beauty.

While the name comes from Christian missionaries, I feel the untamed coronal filaments mimic actual human passion so well. They can curl and crawl every which way but they radiate out from the center and work to nourish the flower as a whole organism. 

Passion flowers have been used as a calming remedy in folk medicine. For the creative, getting into your “flow” does just that. Chasing your passion actually is a kind of zen.

Look for your passion flower. Let it drive you to great things. It will bloom where you are needed.

Passion Flower

Yes, passion can be a messy business.

It's a sloppy, wet thing that's taxing and sometimes crude, but sometimes it's the only thing that keeps us going. 

Passion changes the world.

What's yours? 

The Yearling; Fawn Rising

If you follow my work at all, you know the ‘trail’ is a very important part of my artwork and play. I take to it almost daily to get exercise, find inspiration, recharge, and just occasionally zone out. It was during one of these zone out moments that the fawn found me.

I have come across many deer in this particular area of the trail. They usually bound in front of me when I’m racing home against an oncoming storm (leaving me standing in awe for several minutes and giggling with delight only to get soaked in the rain).

This deer crossed the trail and then came back out onto the path to watch me. It was small, and therefore was hard to tell if it was a large yearling or a small doe. However, it’s usually a buck yearling that enters a clearing alone first, and antler sheds would have just been starting to occur in the last two months as daylight hours grow. At a few points, he/ she was close, but not close enough for me to see an exact gender. 

I was soon fairly convinced that this was a fawn rather than a doe, due to its curiosity and lack of wariness an older doe would have had. I adjusted my pace accordingly, letting the fawn stay a comfortable distance while he examined me. This lasted for several minutes before I decided it had to be documented. Try as I might, the velcro sound from my armband may as well have been firecrackers. The fawn ran down the trail and into the trees as I took my cell phone out to get a photo. I made my way down the trail, trying to focus the iPhone camera, and the fawn popped back into view.  I also got a video after this shot, but somehow managed to delete it. (I’m ultra tech clumsy like that.)

All in all, these moments left me with a great sense of peace and wonder. The innocent curiosity of the fawn was energizing and brought me such joy, yet a slight sense of sadness. I knew the other deer had always been around before. I hoped they were just too wary to step onto the trail while a human was near. This encounter was very meaningful to me. I had to paint it.

 I thought I would work on Yupo paper to continue the look of my latest pieces like True Blue Jay andCardinal Direction, but keep it small.

Boy, was I in for a lesson. It was actually really quite appropriate.

If you’ve ever painted on yupo paper, you’ll know what I mean. It’s a non-porous surface, meaning the paint isn’t just absorbed into the paper if applied in a fluid manner. It pools and flows, makingreally cool and visually interesting marks. The paint doesn’t just sit on top and dry as such. It has a mind of its own. If you are wanting your subject to be representational, or recognizable to the viewer, this requires much patience and vigilance. However, I really like the look of this medium, and it’s worth the sometimes arduous adventure that comes with the territory.

Fawn Rising

 When the drips ran down from the legs, I grabbed my paper towel to dab it up, but stopped myself.

Not only did the watercolor runs resemble a reflection in water, but they symbolized growth.

What is this pool of paint doing? How is this pigment interacting with that one?

The fawn would grow into a deer that knew when to be curious and trust and when to dart away from predators before they could even be heard. 

 The deer teaches us to be keenly aware at all times.

What’s going on around us? How can we be gentle and graceful while protecting ourselves?

The slightest breeze or movement could signify a change.

The fawn is curious and playful, exploring and trusting;

and the deer is ready to change course at a footfall.

The fawn is rising.

Bid on the original Fawn Rising and add it to your collection, click here.

Click here to customize your own print.

Thanks for joining me in my artwork & play!

Happy trails,

National Inspire Your Heart With Art Day

Do you know what today is?
Listen up and heed his advice. (All of it.)

Click HERE to see "Kiss It" in its entirety, or here to see more frogs.

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