A Long Overdue Update!

Wow, this was a long break from blogging! I was going to start again in September, but then we were preparing for a hurricane evacuation and Daniel's start of school. We ended up being able to stay home during Hurricane Irma as it had weakened to a tropical storm, but we didn't know until the last day. Luckily, we had no damage at all except no power for four days, which was nothing compared to what others experienced and are still experiencing.

I also spent the summer trying to understand the mind-boggling political situation in this country and the world. I will continue to keep my blog free of politics, but I did want to mention it here since it defined my summer to a large extent.

The paintings above and below were really fun commissions I worked on during the summer.

It made me feel quite powerless and so sad and angry to read about what this current US administration is doing and undoing. And then came the unbelievable natural disasters that were happening too fast and were too destructive to fully comprehend: incredibly strong hurricanes, earthquakes and now the deadly fires in California.

There was and is so much suffering so close to home and all in places we have visited. They are all places we love. And I have to say, this year's hurricane season was so unbelievable and so much more stressful as we often didn't know if we were going to be directly in the path. I'm so glad the season is finally winding down and the communities affected can heal and rebuild.

I noticed over the summer how my art was changing. At the beginning of the summer I still liked working loosely with acrylic inks and acrylic paint. I liked the element of surprise. Not so much later in the summer. There had been too many surprises that I had no control over and I noticed how I craved taking my time with my art and drawing more intentionally and realistically.

I found a wonderful young British artist on Patreon whose tutorials have taught me so much. Here's the link if you are interested. The golden retriever above I drew with charcoal pencils and my nephew I rendered with graphite and charcoal.

What I really want to learn is how to draw realistically with colored pencils. I followed Kirsty's tutorial for this kingfisher bird using colored pencils and solvent and absolutely loved it.

I used to think I wasn't patient, but that's not true. I am so enjoying these drawings that take me many hours to complete. I'm working on one right now that's going to take me a few more days until it's done. Again with colored pencils.

Thank you for sticking with me. I have missed our interactions. I'll do a few more blog posts with all the photos I've taking over the summer in our garden and a few knitting projects I've finished or am still working on.

In the meantime, I hope you are all doing well!!

❧ Silke

Art!!!

Wow! I can't believe a month has passed since my last blog post. It's been a busy few weeks with life and art and friends visiting.

All the abstract experimenting has led me to changes in my art. In this piece I worked with many, many layers of high flow acrylics and also using some of my stencils.

 What you can't see very well in the photos is the gold I used.

 Not just as paint with the stencils, but also gold-colored metal leaf at the end.

The result is a beautiful 9 x 12 inch portrait, somewhat mysterious and quite layered. This painting has sold.

The following painting is quite a bit larger (16 x 20 inches) and here I again worked with stencils, but this time using them with light molding paste to add texture and structure to the painting.

If you look in the lower right corner, those flower shapes are raised.

As are the flowers in the photo below. Such gorgeous texture!

I'm really enjoying working larger even though it takes much longer. And I love painting human portraits again in addition to my animal paintings.

I hope you are having a wonderful June! I'm spending much of it painting and I'll have more to show you soon!

❧ Silke

Color Studies

I was so happy to be on a roll again with blogging and then Hurrican Matthew happened. Days of watching where it was going and how strong it was getting. Days of wondering if we were going to have to evacuate or if we could stay.

Days of making our house storm ready, preparing for long stretches without power and possible evacuation. Making hotel reservations inland, thinking about everything we needed for us, four cats and Winslow for a few days, and making sure we had all important papers with us. The rest of our "stuff" suddenly didn't seem all that important anymore. We did what we could to make sure it would be safe.

First there the probability we'd have to evacuate, then a polite urging from city officials, (which is when we left) and finally mandatory evacuation. We were safe in a hotel room with all of our critters. They all got along great. Everyone was calm and content. Even when we lost power at our hotel (this was a large storm), we were all still quite happy. And also a little nervous about what we might come home to.

We listened to the local news on our weather radio and it sounded like the storm had been very strong with a lot of destruction. When the evacuation order was lifted, we came home to our house and property perfectly intact. No damage! We were so grateful! It's sad to see how many hundreds of old trees fell in this storm. And it's beautiful to see how everyone came together to help each other out.

We finally got power back and then (much later) our internet and for us life is back to normal, which is certainly not the case for so many others. Again, I'm so grateful!

One thing I did notice though - my art has changed. I started painting in watercolor with a very limited palette (three colors only) and I love it! It's a new challenge and a completely different process for me.

And that's the thing I love about life: nothing ever stays the same!

Linking to the ever fabulous and inspiring Paint Party Friday.

❧ Silke

Charcoal Love

Dear friends, I know I've been quiet as of late. I've been busy enjoying the rest of the summer with Daniel before he starts teaching again. And...I've discovered a new love: charcoal!

Those of you who have followed this blog for awhile know that I've always had a fascination with portraits and it seems I'm getting back to that (while still doing my colorful animal paintings).

I've had such a yearning for working with charcoal in a style that's been in my head and is finally finding expression.

Here are four larger charcoal drawings I did in their various stages of development. Enjoy!

Even though this isn't painting in the strict sense of the word, I am still linking to Paint Party Friday, a wonderful place to gather creative inspiration of any kind!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

❧ Silke

Fearless Painting

I am taking the year-long Lifebook course again this year (a link to the site is on my sidebar) and just January alone was well worth the cost of the course. I am learning to take risks again, to let go of being careful with my art and it was exactly what I needed.

These process photos are from a lesson by Annie Hamman and her little daughter, Tallulah. The lesson was to paint a portrait, but to take turns either with your young child or with your inner child. As you see in the photo above, my woman looks pretty tame in the first layer (adult version).

But in the photo below, my inner child came out to play. The challenge was to not look at it as a face, but just as a canvas to play on. It didn't matter if "important" parts get covered up.

Wow! My inner child sure loves color and has discovered stencils. And was hard to stop! But then my adult(ish) self got her turn and the face started coming to the forefront again. I did love some of the abstraction and made sure to leave some of it.

And again: PLAY! Stencils, stamps and fingerpainting. And color, color, color. So much fun!

And for the last layer I felt that both my adult self and inner child got to have a turn together. I cleaned her face up a little and added a few more stencils. And given how I usually paint, I couldn't resist the drips...

Such a good lesson in connecting to the uninhibited part of ourselves. Not just for painting, but for life. So often we forget to have fun because life can become quite serious. Everything seems to become easier when we inject a little levity. And course, this new approach is already making its way into my other art, but more of that in another post.

I'm linking to the fantastic Paint Party Friday. Head on over for lots of amazing art!!

I hope you are having a wonderful week. Here's to a great weekend ahead.

❧ Silke

Not sure what to do...

So, I was rereading my last blog post and almost deleted it because I think I'm repeating myself. At least to me it seems that way. I feel that way about most of the things I post anymore. Not about the photos or the art, but about my writing.

And I don't know what to do. I've kept this blog going for over five years and I have loved it. Lately though, I spend most of my time feeling bad about not visiting your blogs more often, about not blogging often enough, about not having it be interesting or varied enough.

Much of my active posting is happening on Facebook these days. Is that where I should migrate all together? Blogging isn't that much fun without visiting your blogs actively and I don't seem to find the time for that as I used to.

The free time I do have, I spend painting or knitting or making jewelry. I know I can't be the only one who wonders about keeping on with blogging. What do you all think?

Maybe I should just change the format of it for a while. "Talk" less and show more. Take photos like I used to and show those. And keep showing what I create.

Emergence
18 x 24 inch acrylic on canvas

I see some blogs with very little writing and more photos and art, who are participating in daily challenges and I wonder if I would like that in lieu of hearing myself talk all the time. It would keep everything simple as well, which might be a good thing right now.

The other side of that though is when I participate in challenges, I want to visit all the blogs who do as well, which would not really solve the time problem.

I just don't know. Truly I don't.

What do you think?

❧ Silke

Play!

This morning I had all kinds of fun appointments and some errands to run, but when I got out to the car to leave the battery had died. Well!

That opened up a several hours for me and I quickly went into my studio. got out the acrylic paint and just started playing. I painted and doodled and suddenly it was two hours later.

I was totally absorbed in happy colors, shapes, eyes suddenly looking back at me, lots of paint on my hands, funny little drawings and just the sheer playfulness of it all.

Pure Play
mixed media on 5 x 7 inch clay board

Available in my Etsy Shop. 

There's one more day to enter my giveaway (click on the picture on my sidebar). I'll draw the winner on May 1. How exciting!!

I hope you are having a fun day! I love when I just get to play and take a break from being serious. It's so important.

With love and giggles!

❧ Silke