Posts tagged ‘colorful’
Giving Thanks - Original painting 8x10 by Lauren Alexander
With so much to be thankful for, it’s hard to know where to start. But I’ll try. Coffee, sunrises, puff pastry, sweatpants…the list goes on.
Along with wishing you a very merry Thanksgiving I want to share my newest painting. Sorry but it is a re-run! But only for the better. Musicians do it all the time….take old songs and make them new again. So why can’t I? Yesterday I took an old painting idea and made it new and true to how I like to paint today. Click here to see the old version.
I do hope you all are enjoying some good food and surviving your families with grace and pie. Happy Thanksgiving!
These are my latest little paintings added to my ACEO collection over at my Etsy shop. I really hope to use my time off over Thanksgiving Break to paint some more. This snail’s pace of work painting is really getting old. Time to crack the whip!
Lace; original watercolor painting 4x6 by Lauren Alexander on Etsy
This painting, Lace, got it’s name from my fantastic guess work. While walking in Iowa (before the bird attack) I commented to my dad how the roads were totally lined with beautiful snow-flake looking flowers. I guessed that they were called Queen Anne’s Lace – Dad said he had no clue. I looked it up when I got home and yes, I was right, it was in fact named that. I’m a useless information genius! This painting celebrates my victory. I think the blues are quite soothing, no?
Divination; original watercolor 4x6 by Lauren Alexander on Etsy
At first glance you might see a yellow fish spitting some kind of purple shape but really when I painted Divination I had a snail shape in mind. When I got started the purple brush stroke in the white shape on the lower left reminded me of a snail or slug head. I did all the other stuff around that particular part – sort of an “automatic painting” process or what I like to call paint-doodling. When I looked up snails on wikipedia it said snails are often linked to divination – a word I didn’t know and was pleased to read this: “divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of a standardized process or ritual.” I suppose painting is my divination.
Crystalline; original watercolor 4x6 by Lauren Alexander on Etsy
Finally, Crystalline, is my new favorite painting. It’s all about the colors. I’d say this painting is a reflection of my interest in a new sculpture I was visiting in my art classroom at the Nelson Atkins Museum; Roxy Paine’s Ferment. It’s a silver tree – everyone refers to it as that. “It’s a tree that is not a tree,” we tell our students. This painting is Roxy meets Diebenkorn (see this post) mixed with my uncontrollable impulse to decorate. I wanted to create shapes that are sections of beautiful layers of pigment and meld it with something natural and pretty. I want to live in that icy blue triangle just below the branch. Looks nice in cool on this hot summer day.
It’s been a work week for me. The kind when you have to go somewhere and punch a clock, get a million messy art supplies out, make things, wait forever to eat lunch, run around like a crazy person, and speak nonsensical jabber about the life and times of 5 year olds. So during a week of such nonsense it makes perfect sense that I would paint another picture of not really anything. It’s non-objective, I tell my husband. But there’s fish in it…he thinks…yes, there are fish in there…and that’s why I called it Tank. So maybe it’s abstract…I don’t know – not sure I want to get hung up on such grown up terminology. Look at the pretty colors…look at the diagonal composition….doesn’t it just excite your eyeballs to no end? Me too.
I lost my template that makes perfect trading card size paintings. I am not happy at that. My circle template is taking up some of the slack. Since I can’t paint super tiny (because I only will if the size is perfectly made with my template) then I have to go a bit larger…behold my 4″x6″ new watercolor paintings! What are they? Must you ask….um….well….I don’t know. They’re designs. They have circles and colors that are, if I do say so myself, arranged in dramatic and delightful compositions. There. I explained my art.
Now I will go clean my kitchen and the mess I made butchering my grandmother’s swedish pancake recipe.
Then I will paint some more. It’s my week OFF work after all.
What are you doing this week?
July is here. Time to beat the heat with a little simple pleasure; enjoying the beauty of art! Right now all my original paintings (the actual thing I painted with my hands!) are on sale for 20% off. You don’t need to enter a coupon or anything. It’s already done for you! Everything original – even ACEOs are on sale. Here’s a few things you might find just perfect for your collection:
Not One to Judge - Original ACEO painting on Sale
Storm Lotus - Original 5x7 painting On Sale
Brooch - Original Painting 3.5x5 framed On Sale
Worth the Wait - Original Matted ACEO painting On Sale
I painted this watercolor painting yesterday as a design experiment; no pencil, erasor, etc. I love to make designs, play with color, create random shapes and textures….or maybe it isn’t so random? I like this painting, especially the purple and yellow contrast. I thought to myself…hmmm…where have I seen that before recently? Where was I mentally drooling all over a certain something with those same colors?
May Bouquet by Lauren Alexander on Etsy 8x10 print
I painted this while fooling around in the watercolor class for grown-ups that I am assisting in. It has turned out to be one of my favorite paintings. The original sold quickly – a sign that I did something right. And now the print is here for you to enjoy in all its archival reproduction 8×10 glory. Have a fantastic friday, everyone! What are your plans? Besides shopping for extremely lovely art…..
