Feeling very ideaphoric today. Not surprising that I tested high on ideaphoria - an experience where one feels a constant onslaught of new ideas, creating a euphoric state of idea creation. (From Wikipedia)

My brain is just so active tonight. I've got so many paintings that I need to work on and hopefully complete by July 10th, but so many more are springing up in my mind right now. Not only ideas for paintings, but for photos, too, that may eventually also become paintings. ACK!

Plus I have this neurotic little owl just waiting to be painted. He's so cute. I seem to be getting this obsession with neurotic, colorful and/or whimsical owls. I'm totally into owls lately. And cupcakes. Not just baking, decorating and eating them - though I certainly do enjoy that - but also pictures and paintings, etc.

I just need to write down my ideas and do quick sketches, then work on the things that really need to be done. If I do feel a strong pull to work on one particular thing, I will take a break and do it. Right now I'd like to finish up my hula girls. I brought them out with me while I'm house sitting so I'd to do a little work on it tomorrow.

Should sign off and hit the sack. I love laying there, painting in my mind as I drift to sleep. Such a wonderful way to drift away into slumber...

It's been a very busy time lately, but the past six days have been heavenly. I took four days off work, plus the weekend and have been painting every day. My sister and her husband will be leaving July 10th to get their hawaiian condo ready for rental. So, I'm on a mission to get as many paintings done before then as possible. I love the challenge that this has created for me. It's got my creative juices flowing and me working on a steady basis.

So the past six days have yielded the following:



The half circle on the top is going to be a welcome sign that says either Aloha or Aloha Friends. Something like that. The big yellow circle will eventually be a sun. The two paintings are the hula girls set. On the sides will be partial palm trees and some taller bushes next to them. A smidgen of sea and sand will be there, too. All three of these are done in acrylics.



This one is an oil painting of a heliconia plant. It, along with the rest of the paintings, is still a work in progress. I had to let it dry a few days so that I could continue working on it.

I did have two more canvases that I worked on - finished the backgrounds of them. However, they are a gift for my sis for (last) Christmas and she reads this blog, therefore, no pictures yet. Once they are in her hot little hands, I will be sure to post a picture. :-)

I've got a number of other paintings planned for it: hibiscus, possibly plumeria and two beachy type scenes. Oh, and a painting that is just sea and sky, in all sorts of beautiful shades of blue, based on a picture I took in Maui last Christmas.

The only bad thing is that my leave has now come to an end. And I'm feeling sort of sick and depressed that these wonderful days of sitting out on the back porch, painting all afternoon in the sun are over and real life of working the 9 to 5 job and dealing with the over-the-edge curmudgeon at work is back. Oh well. The painting itself won't end and that's what really counts. :-)

Here's a look at the latest acrylic painting...



Done! Listed in my store and on the VAST Team blog at http://vastgallery.blogspot.com/. It's in very good company with lots of other art by other artists.

Now next on my list is to take the hour or two I need to finish the portrait I've been working on. Plus I have to start sketching out ideas for art for the Kona condo. I love it. :-)

I'm in the middle of my latest acrylic painting, very similar to the one in my last post. Here's a not-so-good-but-all-I-have picture of it so far:



The flowers will remain black on this one, too. However, in my next one, the blue and purple one, I think I will experiment with adding touches of color. We'll see. Plus one of my sisters and her hubby just bought a condo in Hawaii. They'll be flying over, probably in July to paint, furnish and prepare it for rental. I'm moodling over ideas for artwork for the condo. I told them I'd do a few paintings with their condo and the color scheme in mind and if they like any, they can use them. I've got a ton of ideas and need to start sketching some out. I've already decided I'm going to take a few days off, probably next month, and just paint my little heart out for those days. I did that earlier this year and it was GREAT. :-)

I finished one of the paintings from the last post! I worked on the blue and green one first and here's final result:



The sides are 1.5 inches and painted black, so it doesn't have to be framed. I'm looking forward to working on the orange background canvas next. And I've started a blue and purple one where I will paint the flowers in a dark blue, rather than black. Creating the backgrounds are quite fun and really freeing. I'm already planning the color combos I'm going to use for the next set of canvases!

What wonderful timing! My brand new acrylic paints arrived on the very first day of April. The Creative Every Day theme for April is color. And I've been dying to get my hands on those paints so that I could get the very colorful background for my newest non-portrait paintings going.

I decided to work on two canvases tonight... though I'm itching to go do another one, it's too late and I need to get some sleep tonight! I chose the colors I wanted to use. I wanted vivid, vibrant colors for these backgrounds. On the one, I chose to do a combination of blue and green. The other was a few shades of burnt orange with some yellow mixed in. Here are the results...



What you can't tell in the picture is that the orange one has a delicate golden sheen to it and the blue/green one has a blue sheen to it. It's a beautiful effect when you see it in person.

My next step will be to tape off the sides and paint them black. When that's done, I will paint (in black again) on each one a flowery/curly/swirly design I've drawn and then I might use the background colors to accent the black design. I'll give it a try and see how it turns out. I am so looking forward to experimenting with these! I love the colors and can hardly wait to experiment with new combinations of color.

I have had quite the busy week. I am finally fulfilling a dream of mine. I've been setting up a studio in the extra/laundry room downstairs. This has required moving furniture around, sorting through a myriad of belongings, etc. Right now, the space is an unholy nightmare - boxes and boxes of stuff needing to be unpacked, organized and put away. They are just piled on and around the tables and storage cubes in the area. Plus I have two easels taking up room, too.

It had become quite obvious that in order to make any sense of this mess, I needed a lot more storage containers and perhaps even a plastic cart with drawers or two. So I dedicated my Saturday to visiting thrift shops around town. I needed to do this on the cheap, and quite frankly, I'm not too concerned about getting nice, new, matching things. Yes, it would be nice, but I don't want to be worrying about messing up my pretty new things. With this stuff, I can just concentrate on creating and who cares if it gets splattered with paint and hot glue. :-)

I had a BRILLIANT time! I ended up going to five different thrift shops and I scored some awesome stuff. My very first stop, I scored the plastic three drawer cart I wanted for only $5.25! Turns out Salvation Army (or Sally Ann's as they're now being called) was having a 50% off sale all day. :-) So of course I visited two more of them, along with two others in town.

I found bins and little storage boxes, big stacking drawers and all of this for less than I would have paid for just one new three or four drawer cart. I even found a huge frame with glass that I could use to make a big palette for my paint. I turned it into that palette last night and as soon as my studio is up and running, I'll get to start using it. YES! I will finally have plenty of room to mix up all the paint I need. I've been using a 16x20 palette, but I keep running out of room. Not any more. :-)

So now, all I need is the energy and perseverance to go through all of this junk and get it put away. It feels good to know that I'm getting closer and closer to making this dream a reality.