Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Let it Snow...we've a playground inside

    My house is a giant playground to me, my husband and grandchildren. More books than I will ever read, more art supplies than I will use up and wood cutting tools. Nevertheless, I loved trotting into the Museum of Fine Arts on Wednesday evenings. Paula Pitman Brown set up still lifes and we painted in acrylics or oil...or any other subject we wanted to work on. Every so often, I enjoy the structure and routine of a class, camaraderie of students and looking at things in a new way.

    My out-of-class painting happened one night when I forced myself to paint at home. The tv reports of the Paris bombings came on so I just started painting Bones who was hanging by the easel. Then I wanted to add an eiffel tower on canvas with red, white and blue flowers, hopefully growing off the easel canvas. Toward the end of the paint sketching, President Obama was on tv in Antalya, Turkey, addressing the  G20 Summit re the terrorist attacks. I caught in paint, a few days in time. It needs more painting, but I am stopping. I will paint the differently next time in oils.

 
    Two of my class still lifes are the bird in frame, painted mostly in green,  and houses w violin, painted predominantly in browns made up of colors other than browns or blacks. A good visual exercise!

    In the meantime there was Thanksgiving. I suggested that Hannah paint a tree on poster board and cut out leaves for people to add what they were grateful for. She outdid herself and it was a worthy endeavor. Later when I told Joe she would like a light box (SHHHHHH), he made her one for under the tree. Note: he sprayed clear acrylic we had on hand with white paint for opacity and got a 40 watt specialty long bulb. You don't need wood but could create with a sturdy box.

    And last, but not least, Erika told Joe she wanted to make something and rummaged through his wood strips to shape a birdhouse which he and she built together. She is still painting on it but may now be finished. She painted with nylon brushes and those bottles of liquid acrylic paint one finds at a craft store.

7 comments:

  1. May I come be your foster granddaughter. I promise to be good. Pretty please! I want to play at your house!

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  2. WOW, Linda! This is a great post! I loved seeing all the paintings, some of which I saw earlier via email. But I loved what you did with the skeleton painting, and then the green and the brown ones...wow! Hannah's Thanksgiving tree and Erika's birdhouse....these granddaughters are chips off the grandma's block! Joe's light box is super. You two are grandparents par excellence!

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  3. Love the paintings, bird house, and light box! It must be so fun to take an art class at the museum. Your work is so lovely and colorful.

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  4. Flaming pencil! TGP

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  5. Great still lifes. (In Egypt they are called 'dead nature.' That may be a literal translation of French. I don't know French, however.) Erika's birdhouse is
    lovely. Will it hang in her yard come spring?
    NM

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    1. She has left it here...on the work table...one more side to go. But the birds need food in the winter! You often see "nature morte." Had not heard of "dead nature." :*))

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  6. So the Egyptian curators are just making a literal translation of the French into English. Funny. I like 'still life' much better!
    NM

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