A New Finished Painting from the Studio of The Homeless Finch

It's Paint Party Friday! Yeah!  I joined up with this group of artists just over a month ago.  I have been loving it.  The camaraderie is just awesome.  So today, I will be showing one of my latest finished paintings.  I haven't put a varnish on this one yet, but I wanted to show it.
 

"My Memory Doesn't Serve Me Well"

by Lesley Litrento

30" X 30"

This painting developed over a distance of time. It is a painting that is covering a previous work that I completed.  The previous work was a painting for my daughter's room with large geometric designs on purple.  She hated it, so the canvas sat unused for quite sometime.  There are still bits and pieces of that original painting in this one. Pieces that only I know are there.   Here are some detail images of the painting.

Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek into The Homeless Finch Studios.  For those of you who are new, don't leave too quickly!  Take a look around my blog and check out my most popular posts highlighted on the right column.  If you aren't a follower, come join me!  I would love to have you follow along. 

Have a great weekend full of fun and creativity! 

-The End-
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A Painting from The Homeless Finch Studios: "Wind and Rain Bear Fruit"

Last month, I showed you all several progress images of a painting that I was working on in my blog post, Sometimes Running Naked Helps Bare The Truth Which Paves The Way to Honesty.  I completed the painting a few weeks ago and my sister hasn't come over to steal it out of my studio.  So, I am going to show the final results to you today.  Plus, I'm going to hang out over at Paint Party Friday and wanted a little something to share as well.  I have been busy with a project that I will be revealing tomorrow morning as well. 

"Wind and Rain Bear Fruit" by Lesley Litrento

(5' x 3')

 I am so glad that I have finally gotten back into my painting.  I really missed putting brush to canvas.  But sometimes, breaks are good too.  The time away allowed me to clear away the negative energy that followed me from my BFA program.  Now, I am left with positive energy, the skills I required and a willingness to finally listen to my voice as it speaks to me on the canvas.  So far, it's a start and I like what it is telling me.  I hope you do too.  Remember to follow your own voice.  It already knows what you should be doing...

-The End-

Painting and Ponderings From The Studio of The Homeless Finch

in progress

In the studio today working on a few paintings.  Been very contemplative about the Homeless Finch today too.  I love my work. I love writing a blog too.  I don't like promoting it.  Nope. Don't. Promoting a blog is time consuming and arduous for me.  But why have a blog if no one is reading it. Right? I don't know.

in progress

Do you ever think like this? Second guess why you do things.  If you write a blog, do you question why you write it? If I never posted to another linky party again, would people find me?  Are there other ways to get my words out there that are less time consuming?  Do I even have the time to explore them?  Should I care?  What is my blog suppose to be?... for me?  What are my expectations now that I have been blogging long enough to understand the great parts and the not so great parts? Do my followers actually read my blog?  Wondering....pondering... 

"Be who you are and say what you feel,

because those who mind don't matter

and those who matter don't mind."

~ Dr. Seuss  

in progress

-The End-

A Sneak Peek Into The Homeless Finch Studio

I'm in the studio today.  No appointments, no distractions just me, my doggies, my finch and my paints.  Oh! and my laptop.  I am writing this after taking a break for lunch. I needed to let the paint dry on the three canvases that I am working.  Working is the word.  Not sure exactly where I am going with these three.  It's exciting, but frustrating as well.  I work an area wondering if, in the finished product, it will even be visible.  That has become my process.  I just let some things happen.

Along the way, I snap quick images to document where I have been.  I like to do this and then go back and analyze my choices and re-address the direction the painting is taking.  Sometimes, I see things in the flat presentation that a photograph supplies that gives me insight into new ideas.  I have decided to show you the series that has developed.  What the heck, right?!!

The canvases are 20 X 20 each.  This is the first few layers of paint that I put down.  I combined Mars Black with White in varying combinations to create a few different hues.  I also watered down a few to create washes.  I felt like starting with something that would loosely feel like a landscape.  Here are a few details.

I allow some of the washes to drip and run on the canvas.  I don't try and control this because I like the visual texture that they can lend later on in the process.  I let this dry, took a look at the images and decided to play a little bit with some of the areas with solid coverage of paint color.  Here is what I got.

My son saw these in this stage and said, "Oh, mountains!"  I thought, "Maybe."  I don't like to label anything as I go. In fact, I avoid labeling things because I find it restrictive.  I am not always successful in that endeavor. 

So, I get sick of all the grey.  Without much thought (I seriously mean this) I painted a few colors straight out of the tube onto the painting.  I mixed a wash of Alizarin and wiped it with a paper towel across the top and allow some to smear in other areas. 

I take a look at the image above and decided that I hate the dang wavy lines that I put in the grey-blue area above my sons "mountains"  They had to go.  They 'felt' wrong.  I decided to use blue tape to mask off the bottom of the paintings like this...

I took the leftover blue-grey mixed colors and spread them across that area with 5 brushes in my hand all at once.  Crazy? Yes. I know.  Every painting has an experimentation phase.  I was in it.  It produced a horrible muddy mess in that quarter of the painting and I knew I needed to take a serious break before I made a dumb decision that ruined the paintings.  I let that layer dry. 

Giveaway item. Cute!

This is the point when I check the blogs.  I need a good distraction from my canvases as the paint dries.  I actually found an awesome solution for my master bath windows on this break.  I will show you that in another post.  I also entered in a giveaway on my friend Deneen's blog, dreamingincolor.  Fingers crossed. I might win.  What is it that I want to win? Well, go to the link and find out! (wink)

Okay. That aside... I decided that I had a good base of color on the canvas and I want to use it as an the under-painting.  I took down the paintings from the wall and grab my gesso.  I proceeded to use a brush and my hands to cover all the canvas in a destructive and fun manner.  The first time my kids saw me do this, they screamed, "No! You are ruining your painting!"  I then sprayed water on them to moisten them and covered them with grocery bags, pressing down as I went.

After letting them sit like this for 15 minutes, I grabbed up the bags and pulled them off the paintings.  I threw them wildly at the door.  I did.  See here is the pile filled with gesso that I am sure got on my floors too.  I'll clean them up later.  Maybe. 

This is what they look like right now. I consider this the first stage in the process. 

I like the texture that the baggy gesso gives the surface.  The gesso takes well to glazing too.  I will let these dry all afternoon and attack them again in the morning when I am fresh.  I realize that the above image is hard to see, so here are a few details.

Hope you enjoyed the little sneak peek into my studio time today.  Coco did.

-The End-
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Hittin' The Road With My Little Painting and Going Over To The Friday Paint Party

I'm going over to participate in the Friday Paint Party.  I wanted to share a little paint project from this last weekend.  Of course, I just can't show you the painting, there is a story to tell as well!  So here goes.....

I was to attend a good guy friend's birthday party who has everything in the world and needs nothing.  What to do for a gift? Something more than a bottle of wine.  Wine is so, well, average. It's become so impersonal.  Everyone brings wine.  But he does love his vino.   How about a super nice bottle wrapped nicely with a little bit of 'artwork' attached?!! 

I have been toying around with a new process in the studio. I decided to experiment with this process using a cool, vintage image of him that he recently posted on his Facebook page. This is an image of him many years back on a mule in Haiti. Yes.  It is kinda humorous.  My friend has a good sense of humor.  There were the expected Facebook jibs and jabs.  My friend even jump in and participated in a little poking fun at himself! He said something about posting it so he could remember that he once did have hair! It was not your average image, so I wanted to use it.

I took the image and placed it into PhotoShop and altered a few things, including the exposure and shadows. 

I then printed the image onto high grade watercolor paper and added a little color into the sky, ground and saddle using watered down acrylic paint.

I use a deckle scissor to trim the edges to give it a little flair.  Added to a fine bottle of wine. TADA!  Now that is a thoughtful gift for someone who has everything. 

As I am writing this blog post, his Facebook status update reads: Enjoying a glass of wine with friends.  I wonder if he is drinking my bottle of wine?   A girl can dream.

-The End-
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A Photog in The Family...Helping Kids Find Their Passions

In my blog post, Back From Paris, But Not Quite Back, I shared with you some images of our family trip to Paris this past summer.  One image in particular that I shared was taken by my 14 year old daughter on a day in Luxembourg Gardens.  I had allowed her to use my Nikon 3100 camera.  Quite frankly, I had grown weary telling her no, under her constant requests.  Little did I know what a blessing that acquiescence would bring.  

Image taken by my daughter in Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, France.

As I loaded the images from the day on to my laptop back at the hotel, I was stunned at her images.  I have never taught her a thing about photography.  She has never had one lesson, and yet her natural compositional abilities could not go unnoticed.  I scrolled back in my mind and thought about all the hours she has spent recording videos and editing images for her Facebook page.  Could it be that she might have a special ability in this area?  What a revelation.

An excited teen on her birthday.

So, in response, for her 14th birthday just a few weeks back, I gave her a Nikon Coolpix P500. She has been begging me for a good camera for a long time and for some reason, until that moment in Paris, I didn't understand.  I'm an artist.  How did I miss that one?  Well, she is only 14.  So it didn't go too long.  The Coolpix P500 is an awesome piece of equipment.  She is super responsible, so I knew I could make the investment in a decent camera for her to start using.  My mother's father use say, "It's all about the tools."  I agree.  Tools matter.

She has been happily snapping images, uploading them and editing them.  Where she goes, so goes her camera.  A few days ago, I looked out front in the late afternoon to see her doing this....

Yep.  That is my daughter laying in the middle of the street in front of our house!  I freaked out and ran out only to realize that she had a photo shoot of her brother set up and was trying to capture an image of him that she thought might be neat.   My teenage son is a musician and is always looking for images to use on his musician/artist page online.  It was late in the afternoon. The traffic increases from neighbors returning from work.  It made me a nervous wreck! She insisted that it was the perfect time of day for naturally lighting what she wanted to capture.  Yikes!

With no editing, this is the image she came up with from a photo shoot that took about 15 minutes to complete. Even though, for me, it felt like hours seeing her lying in the street.

Pretty awesome, right?!!  She 'saw' this through her camera lens.   This raw image rocks my world in so many ways.  It is not only compositionally interesting, but the back-lit landscape and angle of the shot tells a story.  Magic.  You can't teach this.  You just can't. 

Parenting is such a tough job.  We all do the best job we can.  I have always thought that one of the most important gifts we can give our kids is to help them discover their passions.  After all, what is life without our passions? 

-The End-

What's On My Desk? You Asked?

I just found this fun little place in the blogosphere.  Julia at The Stamping Ground has a midweek party called What's On Your Desk Wednesday which asks bloggers to show their stuff.  Not just any stuff either.  It is a request for images of our desks in the raw. No staging allowed!  I wasn't planning on writing a blog post today, but after taking a look around at the organized mess, I thought, "What the heck?! I'll do this!"  After all, it's kinda a good barometer of what The Homeless Finch is up to this week. 

My desk is a big round table in the middle of my studio space.  I don't go very far without the Internet.  I must be connected in at all times. Notice the screen is on Facebook.  What the heck is going on with Facebook today?! They changed the formatting and it's got everyone in an uproar.  It has actually taken studio time from me today. Sick, I know!  But truth.

On the other side of my table are these little 5 x 5 canvases.  I like to keep 5 x 5s out for working through ideas for larger paintings.  Sometimes I just use them to test out a glaze color that I've mixed before using it on a painting. 

If you look closely at this images, you can see my Homeless Finch brainstorming ideas notes to the left starting out with a note about making an Autumn banner.  Guess I better get on that one!  The little note peaking out from the right, just under that bag that happens to be from Jerry's Artarama, is the list of people who have been making repairs on the house, an electrician, flooring guy and a tree trimmer.  Never ending needs when taking care of one's property.  The Jerry's bag has some new mix media paper that I picked up for a project merging Photoshop techniques with paint.  I am totally excited about this project.

Took out some of my drawing supplies because as I mentioned in my post, It's A Little Sketchy Around Here, that I am wanting to sketch more.  Haven't opened them yet.  Hopefully tomorrow's morning studio time will be a still life of some sort so I have something for the Blue Chair Diary's Sunday Sketches Party.

To the left of my computer is this stack of kitchen books with my handy lime green tape measure and one of several pair of reading glasses that I own.  When I hit my mid 40s, I went totally blind.  No, just kidding.  I just lost my close up eyesight like everyone else does.  It just seems that bad sometimes as I stammer around the house, digging in my purse and scouring drawers for a pair.  Couldn't look through these kitchen books that I have owned for many years without the specs!  Oh well....."it" happens.

So, there you have it....The Homeless Finch desk for today.  You can barely see that cup of coffee or the ever present iPhone off to the right, but hey...I girls gotta have some secrets. (wink)

-The End-

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It's a Little Sketchy Around Here

My son asked me yesterday, "Hey Mom, why don't you draw anymore?"  I responded quickly, "I draw all the time."  Liar.  Yep. I lied.  I use to sketch and draw constantly.  Now, the only time that I draw it is to doodle on a piece of paper while waiting for someone to pick up the phone.  How did I get away from something that I enjoy so much? 

So fast forward to today.  I open up a new blog that I am following, Artsy Butterfly. I found Cathi Bueti  through the new blog party I found called Friday Paint Party.  Cathy was posting a sketch today for another blog party, a Sunday Sketch party.  I took a look over at the party and thought to myself, "I gotta get back to sketching.  Even if it is just for nothing more than unpressurized pleasure." 

I think that I am a little introspective lately.  I am really working through some value judgements and re-evaluating many of my choices on how I spend my time and effort.  The process alone is comforting.  It makes me stop and appreciate the things that are right.  It makes me take control of my life and create a place around me of purpose, peace and happiness. 

So here is my post for the Sunday Sketch Party.  The sketches shown here are sketches that I have done in the distant past.  The one of the elderly lady was a 're-draw' of a famous Hyman Bloom sketch.  I first hand sketched the original and then added the skeletal structure.  Love the exercise of taking something and adding my own signature.  It's challenging because it puts you in the position of trying to match a master, then putting a little twist on it. Fun.  The other sketch is a self portrait.  Guess I was stressed that day!

Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek at a couple of drawings.  Gotta get my nice papers and drawing supplies back out and dust them off.

-The End-

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Sunday Sketches at Blue Chair Diary