Feeeed Us, Seymour!

I had loads of fun painting this one. It's a type of floral I don't recall seeing any other artist render in any medium before although I'm sure some have.

I love Venus fly traps. These little carnivorus beauties are near and dear to my heart. I always had one or two when I was growing up. I loved to feed them tiny bits of raw hamburger and the occasional fly and watch their 'jaws' close around the prey. It was fun to stick my finger in those jaws, too.

For my palette I used vivid green, perylene green, perylene maroon, dioxazine purple, Quin. red, pyrrol red and aureolin yellow. I tinted some white gouache to add a few highlights. I also used salt, a piece of plastic wrap and some splattering to add background interest.

Stalled Out

This past month has not been productive for me at all. I have ideas but seem to lack the motivation to carry them out. This is different than artist's block. It's something else. What, I don't know. Sometimes I never know what is getting in my way until after it passes. Then I look back and wonder why I didn't see the problem before.

Yesterday I did finally pick up a brush and do a quick floral in hopes it would get my artistic juices flowing again. Maybe I should consider doing a painting a day. Just something simple to jump start myself. Maybe I will continue to paint foxgloves until I feel I have mastered them or until I get tired of painting foxgloves.

Idea for a Series ~ Fish Outta Water

I mentioned a few years back I'd like to try painting fish but never followed through. I couldn't find the right fish, I guess. Recently the idea for a series titled, 'Fish Outta Water' has been rolling around in my head and this is a rough sketch of the first possible installment. I doubt it needs explaining but just in case, it's a large school of fish acting as the leaves of a tree. I scribbled(and I do mean scribbled) the cat in last minute. The comp seemed to need another element and cats do love their fish. My current plan is to have fish show up in various out of water and hopefully unexpected places though not literally, of course. :D