here's something new ... lots of artsiness today!

yippy, zippy, hooray .... i worked on my artsiness today ..... (lest you think i'm not being summery enough, i played tennis this morning before the artsy part of the day started) ..... 

one of the things i did today was go to my favorite art store, binder's ..... and i bought something....... a 48 by 72 inch canvas .... that is big ....big .... BIG .....yoinks .... 

that's little e.beck.artist... she is tall for her age .... but sure looks dainty next to that .... bringing this monstrosity of a canvas home was a big deal... both girls shopped for it with me .... it was exciting to figure out what size to get ... who on earth buys a six foot square? how do they get it home? or to the gallery? ...my four by six feet barely fit in my mini van ....  but it did ... and it is home ... and, oh my goodness, it is a large dominating white mass in my studio ...... in this shot above, my studio that i always show you is off to the right of the pic .... this middle section has the kids' computer and that small table is for my overflow .....quick..... look at it again ... those three canvases, yellow orange and blue, that i did the other day? i finished the yellow one today ..... 

see? above is that yellow canvas i did earlier in the week ..... i had no notion of what to do for it ... but it was a nice yellow ocher on it .... and i thought a raw umber horizon line would be nice .... it's been a while since i proclaimed my true and long lasting love of raw umber .... raise your hand if you remember that ....anyone? .... raw umber is just the most useful glaze ever! ...... but ... that's not what we're about today... another day i will reproclaim my umber love and explain the how and why of such an odd choice for unfailing admiration.....so .... i did a horizon line ... and thought i'd do red flowers ... thinking red would pop on that background ..... so i shuffled through my red stash....see the red bingo pages i did the other day? rah, i put them away! ... this clipboard has all my red papers that i've painted with leftover paint on a palette when another project was done .... those two novel pages on the left are what looked best to me .... a deep red ... not too orange ....not too pink ...not too thick .... so i'd be able to paint over it to give it shading ......but still see the text .....and this picture is what i did to finish my background...give it some more texture ... some more visual interest .... make it look me! .... the bottom letters are raw umber in a heavy body acrylic .... the top letters are a raw umber glaze mixed with yellow ochre ..... so, really, i've used two colors on the canvas so far .... umber and ochre ..... but i've used it in a glaze, a fluid, and a heavy body ... 

ok... this picture above is where i tried on the red papers .... just to see what i could envision ... i didn't envision flowers .... i was going to do a vase ... some greens ... and bright popping red flowers .... but now ... i didn't see flowers when i tried on the red papers .... .... i saw pears .....

and they are done .... sitting in my family room .... i named this piece "red pair".....

it is the 70th piece that i have finished in 2008 .... cool, huh?