Painting Small

I've been part of an online painting group (Flora Bowley's Studio Diaries) that will be painting together until November 2016... and then have the choice to paint again together for another year (or more!). It has been so supportive for me, and has definitely been keeping me in my painting studio! Wait...I have a painting studio now?? Well... I have found a wall in the spare room, which I can't believe took me so long to figure out! I've been painting in the landing at the top of the stairs...on a tiny counter with all the plants, and a tiny easel. Well...the easel kept tipping, and I was running out of space on the counter, so I relocated myself onto a bigger wall, and have a whole table now to hold my paints. It is perfect!!

The most recent project has been to paint small paintings, and I found some canvases that were tiny (4x6) and had alot of fun with them:

They look quite sweet hanging in little nooks around the house.  I do love spreading out on the big canvases... and this was a change of pace. :)

Happy Solstice...

~Leah

The Journey

These two are older pieces... getting a bit dusty. The one above, which I call 'The Journey', evolved during a SoulSister painting session that I facilitated with a friend of mine last year. Everyone worked on two paintings over the course of 7 weeks. We would hold a circle, share a beautiful meal, and then paint together. It was a precious time. This was one of my paintings, and was prophetic in a way... as shortly afterwards, I headed on my journey of midwifery... not in birth, but in the death of both my parents that cold, dark winter. The old woman in the painting is a Baba Yaga of sorts... filled with inner wisdom and strength. So many times I called upon her that winter. I felt her presence, deep within.

This is a work in progress on a 32x60 canvas that my sweet husband bought for me two Christmases ago. I have a long way to go on this canvas... it is SO big, and exciting!! The dolphin emerged, and I feel she needs to stay as a part of the scene... whatever it will evolve to be. I also have two new big canvases... not as big...24x30, which I am really looking forward to playing on. :)

~Leah

Tropical Snails

Oh what fun to discover a small, black canvas kicking round in the storage room. :) This was a first for me, and I quite enjoyed the richness of the background, and broke out onto it with blues and purples. Right away, the vibe felt very tropical to me with some heavy florals going on in the background.

And next thing I spotted... snails! And the sunlight bursting down upon a beautiful flower! What fun this little canvas was... a very joyful experience. :)

~Leah

Tiny Pieces

 I absolutely adore these little close-ups of the paint in little areas of the canvas I'm working on. I'm such a sucker for texture, and would keep my paintings full of it if it didn't make them so BUSY! There comes a time when simplifying and breaking up the space is necessary, and I must admit that it is hard for me to make those leaps.

I need to work on my attachments. ;) Zen painting...

This is a small area of one that I have been working on for a while. It has reached a point where I am in love with every part of it, and I am reluctant to make the next move. It sits in my office, in full view and I gaze at it...loving the colours and textures. Every once in a while, I flip it sideways or upside down to see if anything wants to be brought out, or cut back. For the longest time, I have seen a girl blowing a bubble...'cosmic bubble' comes to mind as a title, and I may work towards that and see how it plays out. :)

This part of the same painting reminds me of a little seed... buried under the earth... cozied in, and waiting for the right time to burst. I also see a volcano... seed buried in the volcano... interesting...

I just never know where it will all lead, and I enjoy the process so completely...the surprise of it, the play of it. Yum.



~Leah

Art as a Transporter

Painting for me is like a transporter... I leave my body for awhile and get carried into the textures, colours, smells of the paint, the music I am listening to... I dissolve.

This is a very healing time for me... and can be short and sweet, or prolonged throughout the day. My goal is to paint a little everyday. One layer at a time, then leave it to dry. My paintings paint themselves in the end... the vision comes into focus closer to the end, rather than at the beginning. Shapes and forms emerge through the textures, and quite often I am surprised when something shows up. Like with this painting. I took a bold leap and added a bunch of dark marks, and they started to look like buildings, and then a mountain cave evolved, and a carnival of sorts in the sky... it became very magical, and I really enjoyed the journey!

I was happy with this stage of the painting, although it felt like it needed some grounding... an anchor for it all to sit on, so I drew a line across the bottom and then there was a place for it all to land.

This is the final... I called it 'Mountain Carnival of Souls'. What a trip. My camera didn't quite capture the true pop of the overall image... it is really eye-catching in real life. My son really likes this one, and I had a wonderful time painting it.

~Leah