POWER POINT

Only once many years ago did I paint a picture for a themed-based show. Our paintings had to be inspired by a specific, old country church, and one artist painted the outhouse behind the church..... inspiration with humor.

After taking lots of photos through darkened windows of the pews and altar, I found my real inspiration in this light meter. Since I like mechanical things anyway, painting this was just goofy fun. I changed up some of the lettering to be more meaningful to me, like the Greek letters of Alpha and Omega. Many of the letters or numbers are backwards, some reversed as a mirror image or upside down, so that the real meaning of POWER SURGE is more subtle. All the numbers or letters spell out words in about a dozen different areas creating a message regarding things important to my beliefs.

I did learn a good personal lesson - to not ever again paint for a themed show. If I have something that will work, that's fine, but it's not in me to 'make a painting happen' based on a show's agenda. In the same way, this line of thought may also have something to do with why I seldom ever accept commissions, except for dogs.

I'm posting this because it's Easter weekend - my favorite Sunday of the year and favorite holiday. I wish a very Happy Easter to everyone.

"POWER POINT" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 12 x 19"

GRATE ART

This painting is a result of my love of taking photos of what's under my feet. In Italy and Switzerland, I was fascinated with the grates in the walkways and streets and decided they all had to be incorporated into one painting.

Created on YUPO with fluid acrylics, this painting was my favorite one I did during the last couple of days of independent study at our North Carolina workshop.

The past four days here have been jam packed with instruction from an AWS artist, Janet Rogers. This morning's class enjoyed watching her paint a beautiful bouquet of roses, then Rhonda drove her to the airport. Next, Janet and her husband, Steve, are teaching in Key West. It was a very special weekend.

"MORE GRATE ART!" Fluid Acrylics on YUPO 20 x 26"