While I’m between birds of prey paintings, I’m doing a few small works on paper scraps. They’re not truly ‘scraps’, but leftover 5 x 7″ pieces from large 300# Arches watercolor paper I had cut down to size. I can’t remember what I had cut it originally for, but I found these the other day while cleaning and organizing. So I figured now is a good time to try a couple of ideas I had. At least the small sizes minimize the amount of paint and paper wasted if they don’t work.
Maybe I’ll do these again on larger papers later, or maybe I’ll just keep doing 5 x 7’s to build up stock of originals in more affordable prices. As with most of my paintings, these feature my hand-foraged and processed pigments from right around here in the Ozarks. Which is why my art is priced a bit higher than you might see in other small works by relatively new artists.
Small Works
Old Shed
The next painting is a quintessential rural Ozark shed. I have seen so many similar variations of our old shed around here. I think they may have all been built around the same time period, early to mid 1900’s. Just as our old house sits on stacks of rocks for support, so does our old shed. These structures are surprisingly stable for being on dry stacked rocks. These stacks are only at the corners and mid-beam, not chain walls all the way around like a foundation. But it is impossible for me to add details like that into small works. This is one reason I want to do larger ones later.
Here’s the first of the old shed. I did take progress pics of this one, so later I’ll make a page for that. I’ll probably just do that at the shop listing page, and that will help cut down on duplicate content at my website.
But hey, check out the green(ish)! That’s from those rocks I found a while back. I’m so excited to have this pigment on my palette. Now, if only I could find a local blue(ish).
I’m planning to do more of this old shed. Maybe some will be small works but I want to do at least one larger. There’s another photo I took with a much redder sunset, and maybe I have some in the files somewhere from fall, or with stormy skies.
We’ll see. I know for sure there’s at least one more old shed painting to come.
I haven’t loaded either of these to the shop yet, but the originals and prints (and notecards) will be available, probably in March.
Ancient Goddesses
I love the oldest mythologies and stories with settings in ancient times. Ancient history was my favorite class in college. The painting below is a mixture of various different images, but the main form of the woman is reminiscent of the snake goddess from the Minoan culture. I just didn’t include the snakes for this one.
There are shows and exhibits especially for small works on paper. Since I’d been trying to paint larger and larger and having sold some of the others I had on small papers, I don’t really have an inventory of the small ones anymore. Right now there are only two, one of the twisted trees and the fox. And I sold all of the even smaller ones (3 x 4”) at the Little Craft Show in December last year. So I’m glad to be adding more to inventory.