I do not seek inspiration or wait around hoping it will find me.
Sometimes it just shows up, performing an aerial glomp.

Friday, January 8, 2010

ACEO House and Tree: Painted Jan. 7-8, 2010


ACEO House and Tree
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 2 1/2 x 3 1/2,
110# Georgia Pacific smooth cardstock.
I painted the sky and then walked away to let it dry. But the clock rolled past midnight in Edmonton when I was working on the silhouette. So technically it was worked on in two days.

The sky was a mixture of a light blue paint and white. I wanted it to be a winter sky, but I think I will need to add more white or a touch of gray to really look like winter. Although the sky did not end up exactly as I had intended, a cool autumn day sky is close enough. The sky took about (a little under?) ten minutes. I did not stress about the color too much.

The idea of a house silhouette was with me earlier in the day. However, I first doodled a few houses and tried to steer myself from the classic pentagon shaped houses I drew as a child. My imagination really took hold while I was coming up with shapes and I knew the house was going to have a dormer or something very early on.

The miniature world developed in my mind as I created the silhouette. It felt like a mediation through paint lead by the imagination. I imagined a room with a large window that could see the moon at night and what it would be like to sneak out onto the roof. The fence shape came from a fence that was in my front yard as a child, but the mailbox ended up thrown in when I smudged paint. I giggled as I added the little flag showing the homeowner had mail waiting.

The tree is one of those ancient trees that are old before you are even born. I had trees in my yard growing up that had to be cut down and part of me clings to their memory. This silhouette tree has survived though. Pieces have fallen in storms, and branches have been cut over time. Yet branches still reach upward planning to display leaves in the spring. It is the sort of tree that if I walked by, I would pause to take out my camera.

I signed my name in a light blue, semi-blending into the background. I chose the perfect place to set my name as if it was sitting down for a picnic.

The silhouette took about 45 minutes, maybe a little longer, to paint. But that journey to the miniature world felt like it existed outside of time and waits to be visited again just by viewing the painting.

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