Finished a Busy, busy Mandala

So here is my finished mandala, 30 individual paintings that make up the one big.  You can see that I placed these on a piece of plywood in order to keep them together for the photo.  Now I am taking it apart and appreciating each small piece on its own.

It's raining cats and dogs outside, so I believe all good dedicated artists are in their studios/art rooms/art spaces just creating like crazy.  I am right now, then Oldest Daughter will be over and we are going to cook together, another type of creating art!  I'm a grateful woman and breathing often and deep today, thank you!

Getting These Smalls to Be a Big

So how in the heck does this puzzle go together?  Lol, I am having a loverly time getting these smalls to become the big.  I just have a couple of the tiny ones to get done and I am finished with the large mandala which I don't know what to call yet.

I need to go back through my notes and decide what goes where and put this together again.  Then I need to take some photos of it finished, then I will be able to name it.

So sad though, it's never going to be shown as a complete piece at either of the galleries that represent me.  Now that I'm almost finished I realize it's too difficult to hang together and selling it bit by bit will be difficult and I know someone who will crushed if the whole is broken up.

Instead of showing it and selling it as a whole, I have decided to give each individual piece away during the upcoming holiday months.  Sutter Creek Gallery wants small pieces to make up some donation art baskets for community events, and I think I will just have some on hand for this purpose on an ongoing basis.  I absolutely love the idea of giveaways and a tiny piece can be so cherished if it's placed in the perfect spot by somebody who loves original art.  Yay!

Not breathing too calmly today but I am okay with that cuz I'm getting so much work accomplished.  I can do the meditative breathing on another day when the sun isn't so wonderfully looking down on us.

Very Good for Breathing

So I'm so sick of doing the little guys and thinking of a composition for each one of them!  I have abandoned the idea of entering the 30 days of paintings show, but I am interested in doing something "outside of the box" which is another event happening in Auburn.  I picked up my box which is 6 sheets of 1/2" plywood, each 10x10".  I have been playing with them to try to configure something that is not a box, lol, and also not a crafty project.

My mentor did an outside of the box painting a few years ago which I just loved.  It's a large canvas with a wonderful abstract of her experience in Machu Pichu, and she had to do more of her vision on the back of the canvas.  She did the hanging wire from the top of the canvas so it could be hung with both sides available for viewing.

Since I absolutely love the backs of these small canvasses that I have done, I have decided to paint their reverse sides that are usually to the wall.  They are sitting on top of the 6 pieces of wood that are going to be part of the "outside of the box" piece.

Here's an image of what I have done so far.  See the little nooks and crannies that are the backs of these little gems.  I love that about them.

I don't really know where I am going precisely.  I have an abstracted, kind of far away view of the finished piece which I will share as I go along.

Right now am off to the movies with my better half, and Woody Allen always makes us laugh which is good for breathing.  Yes, very good for breathing.

24 DONE, 6 TO GO

Well!  I count 24 done, 6 to go.  The remaining canvasses will probably be very minimal in design and composition as the ones that are done are really kinda complicated leaving the overall design very busy.    It's very difficult to photograph the overall image well enough to appreciate each individual small painting so here are some of the completed ones:

These're all tiny guys, 4x4"s and 5x5's and difficult to see if they are too far away.  Once I get the whole bunch of them finished, I'm going to have my photographer really do a good job with the image.  I don't know whether or not I will show them hanging together.  I may just offer each one for sale separately for a nominal sum.  I'm gonna get opinions from the gallery I guess.





As far as the competition asking for 30 pieces in 30 days, I have decided not to enter.  First my attention span is not  long enough to do one of these a day, 30 times.  It gets awfully monotonous and then I feel guilty when there's one day that I can't do one.  Guilt is not an emotion I want to deal with where my painting is concerned.  I have enough guilt in other areas of my life!   Of course, I may change my mind tomorrow...think I'm going to go exercise and breathe.

Landscapes, San Francisco and New Wheels

Since August 22nd, we have been to see Willie Nelson in concert, we have celebrated the 9th birthday of Youngest Grandson, totalled our big car, cut down a tree, bought a new car, sold a painting at the gallery, and now are finally having a "homey" day cooking tortilla soup and catching up on my fun, oh I mean work which is art.

In between all of the above I managed to work on a few new landscape pieces:

First one is another vineyard but with some substantial background noise, lotsa color in the vines.

The painting to the right is a scene from a path I walk every once in a while.  It is adjacent to our first tee.

This strata landscape is now finished and is a scene that I photoed out on my way to Sutter Creek.

Another vineyard scene.





And to the right is Coit Tower.  I was with the two moms (Oldest Daughter) in San Francisco mid August.  They had business so me and Nevvy got to take a 2-hour walk.  We found ourselves on the Embarcadero and  I snapped a photo of the tower from the park where we took a short rest.



So gotta get back to my tortilla soup.  I found I had too many tomatoes so decided soup would be good.    Toodles and any comments regarding my work are welcome.

P.S. I did some work on the mandala too, but that is another post.