Flowers are blooming, wisdom tooth holes are healing, and I won four ribbons (and some cash!) in an art show!
My drawings took first, second, and third places in the drawing category in an art show. I entered a ceramic piece that won a third place ribbon, too. The money I won takes me over halfway to buy the watercolor set I've been dreaming about!
The only disappointment is that my oil painting didn't place. :( I hate to focus on the negative, but I feel like I need to get this out of my system. This particular painting is a bit of a "landmark" work for me. It symbolizes, to me, what I learned in all of my painting courses and my ability to finally apply that knowledge to a painting.
It means a lot because, after always spending so much time on layering my paint and glaze after glaze after glaze, this painting employs very few layers. The clouds are a single layer of pigment
and turp drips over charcoal. I had meant to paint over it, but after letting it dry, I decided I really liked it as it was and simply let it be. This restraint is something that all of my instructors had always tried to get me to practice, but I don't think I ever really understood what they were talking about until now. (Of course, I had another canvas of the same size on which I painted the same image, but spent more time layering and pushing the paint around the way I'm used to doing.)I don't want to rely on regional art shows for affirmation of my efforts, and I don't. Maybe this painting is more exciting to me than it is to other people who look at art. It was meant, after all, to be a throwaway, moody landscape painting that I painted just to paint a throwaway, moody landscape painting to prove to myself that I could. It has turned out to mean much, much more to me than I ever would have guessed. I thought that it would have at least received a ribbon, if only an honorable mention. The oil painting that won first place and best of show was okay, but the style looked like something out of a North Light Books instructional book. (Please excuse my sour grapes.) I did like the painting that won first place, though, the style was just the sort of style that many painters use now and, though it was well done, it wasn't anything groundbreaking; just a lot of candy-colored paint daubs depicting someone's copied photo of a great aunt. ...I probably sound like an asshole, whining about this and criticizing other paintings after taking all three ribbons in the drawing category. I guess I just needed to get it out of my system, regardless of how it makes me sound. I try so hard and I finally achieve something that I knew I was trying for, but I didn't know what it was until I'd achieved it. It sucks that that sort of personal achievement and growth doesn't always show through in the finished work... I guess that's what I'm trying to say.
In other news, I have some sketches to share:
"Cat Nouveau"
Pencil sketch from 8 1/4"x11 3/4" Moleskine
Pencil sketch from 8 1/4"x11 3/4" Moleskine
