Abstract Painting, The Beach and the Palm Tree

The Beach and the Palm Tree is a painting I did for a challenge. The challenge was to paint ocean/beach. I decided to make it cartoony looking after I remembered all those cartoons about islands in the middle of nowhere I've seen when I was little. A swirl of sand and water on the background is what I imagine someone who is stranded on such island would bee seeing after getting a heat stroke

  Original $100

  8.5x11 print $20

If you would like to hear more about this painting, feel free to watch this video where I describe it in more details

After a crazy day, I was finally able to make this video. Making this video was the real challenge. First I recorded it just to find out that the camera was breaking and was doing some crazy tricks. I went out to get a new one and on the way back almost got pooped on by a bird. Seriously, bird, have some respect. I mean, I'm vegan so that you can live and not be eaten, and what do I get in return? Anyway, when I got home with a new camera I realized that the microphone on this camera is rather bad, but I couldn't handle going out again, so I just worked with what I had. I'll have to get a new microphone some day because this is clearly not working too good. On the brighter side, my cat friend, Cuteness is performing a magic trick on this video, he magically disappears.

Abstract Beach and the Palm Tree Pianting. Finally Done

This abstract watercolor and ink Beach and the Palm Tree painting is finally finished. I literally just finished it. The paint is drying, so I can't scan it in, but I took this photo. Tomorrow if all goes well, I'll post it on etsy and perhaps make prints of it as well. I learned a lot from this challenge. Every painting slowly but surely improves my skills, but I think this one improved them much more then any other work I did. It's mainly because I did something I wasn't used to. I experimented, tried new things and as a result learned much. Something I was dreading to do turned into something I really enjoyed painting and seeing it come to fruition.Well, now I'm going to make some prints and see about selling them :)
____________________________________________

Apocalypse Update: There was hail today. So much for me wanting to go to the beach... oh well, at least it's not scorching hot and I don't need to water the plants since all the hail melted right in the pots.

Work in Progress, Abstract Watercolor Beach painting

I finally got a chance to put a few more hours into this painting. I'm actually almost done with it, just have to do the water swirl. Today I finished the palm tree and the sand swirl. You can see some of the details of the palm tree here as well as a part of the swirl. This painting is coming out way better then I expected. The added benefit is that I'm trying new techniques on it. I was watching a youtube video yesterday about this guitar lesson. The guy was basically showing that you don't have to always follow the rules, play the same things everyone already have played. You can find your own way. If it sounds good, why not do it? The example he was showing is called "triangles" where he literally was forming triangles with his fingertips while playing the guitar. It sounded great, but you will never find "triangles" in any book or guitar lessons. This is my approach to art. Some of the best artists I've met are self taught. They always stand out, because they do something different from every other artist. They don't use the same techniques. Instead, they develop their own techniques. This is the route I went with this painting. I didn't use watercolor the way it's taught. I used it in my own way. It actually turned into a combination between watercolor, marker and inking techniques. You can clearly see the inking techniques in the was the leaves are colored. What I did was basically mixing paint a lot thicker then you would normally mix for watercolor painting. With a very thin brush I applied it as if I was using a pen. As a result you have these thin ink0like lines on the leaves.

Every form of art, be it performance, fine art, craft or any other form is based of imagination, expression of an idea or feeling, innovation. If we always walk the same walk, nothing new will ever be developed. The techniques everyone is using now have been discovered some time long ago by some artist who was thinking outside the box. Art has no rules, it has no boundaries. Why do we keep on putting those limitations to the way we express ourselves? Do an experiment, do something completely different. There is a good chance you will find a new way to improve your skills through this experimentation. The amount of new recipes I came up  with by accident, the amount of new cool discoveries I've made by messing up what I was originally intending to make. Don't be afraid to do something unusual. Break those boundaries.
______________________________________

Apocalypse update: When am I ever going to get tired of making fun of people who believe in this nonsense? Oh, I don't know... when the lobster will whistle on the mountain. Or at least croak a few times. Anyway, it cooled down to comfortable temperature here, the air is great, no humid. I think Yahveh is loosing the battle. Hopefully it will stay this way because I really want to go to the beach tomorrow. Get away from the computer so that I can get more drawings done. I might even dress up as a pirate to pastafarians my support. They are doing such a great job. Who cares about football and baseball when you have such epic battle going on? GO PASTAFARIANS!!! GO FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!!!

Palm Trees, and Monkeys. Painting of a Beach

In one of the art teams on etsy we have these challenges. We pick a topic and try to paint it. This time the topic is beach/ocean. Well, I must admit, this was actually challenging. Mainly because of all elements in nature, I never got special attachment with the beach. I lived most of my childhood ether close to the forests or mountains. We had rivers and lakes, but they were small and never inspired that great of an ow in me. I only saw sea for the first time when I was in my teens. The earlier memories were much more important to me as far at loving elements in nature goes. Plus, I'm really not "painting the beach" kind of girl.

After thinking about this challenge for a few days, I finally figured out how to combine this topic with my painting style. I finally cracked it, I'm doing it and I'm loving it. This picture shows it as it is so far, I have to put another day into it before I can say I'm done, but so far I think it's going well.

Now, here is how I managed to get this to the point where I can actually enjoy doing it. First of all I needed to figure out how to do it in abstract, more importantly my style of abstract. I googled "abstract beach" images and saw how other people did it. This started bringing me in the right direction. I figured out what I wanted on the painting plus I got the boost of confidence that I can indeed do it. Then I remembered all those cartoons I watched when I was little and how small islands were depicted in them. This helped me develop it further. Now add a simplified version of my crazy lines and here it comes. Beach painting that is my very own and that I can relate to. Now I just have to finish and hope I wouldn't mess something up in the process.

The whole time I was painting, Monkey wanted to be close to me. After trying to get comfortable on the drafting table where I was painting, he figured there was too much water and paint, plus I was moving things around too much. He changed his position by switching to the table just an arm length away and of all places, he went ahead and fell asleep on the printer.

-Monkey, can you print out last month expenses?
-Mew, give me catnip

Oh, and the spiders... I hate spider... For some odd reason they seem to like the idea of moving in with us though. Killed one of them myself (after screaming like a little girl) and Vincent killed the other (after I screamed like a little girl.) Now, this is how the conversation went between Vin and I after I screamed
-Vincent, there is a spider in the bathroom, can you kill it?
-Nah, it's going to keep the flies away (he has a thing against killing things, even spiders)
-No, it's going to keep me away
Anyway, after threatening to spray the spider with chlorine so that it would die a terrible and painful death without me getting near it, Vincent agreed to catch it and release it outside. Killed it in the process of catching though.

Don't forget about the giveaway btw, it's still on at http://artofarmadavolya.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-of-painting-joy-and-my-first.html

Apocalypse update: Good news, it cooled down a bit over here. It was so much nicer today, I didn't even have to turn on the AC. Though I still have to water the plants myself :(
Darn, this end of the world is very sneaky, you can't even see it coming.
 ______________________________________________________

Update: 3 spiders... 3... One of them snack up on me while I was typing the blog post for From the World of Art. My arachnophobic mind can't handle it. Perhaps this is the way the world will end... it'll be huge aggressive spiders... they will scare us all to death...
 ______________________________________________________

Another quick update, there is another giveaway I'm sponsoring. If you would like one of my Ancestor's Spirit paintings, I'm giving away the largest, the most expensive and the one I like the most. It's an $80 painting, so don't miss out