[Susan Carroll]

Hi Everyone,
Was born an artist, but lost my way with 30+ years in engineering. Retired and now going back to who I knew I was 40 years ago. This is the first drawing I have completed in a long time, lots of unfinished pieces, but this came out fairly quickly.

Prismacolor, gold leaf, gold watercolor, moonstone, crystals, paper collage, watercolor, acrylic, diffraction paper.

[Carl Copeland]

Welcome to the Sphere, Susan. I don’t comment on art, because I’m utterly unqualified to do so (though for some reason I’ve always had artist friends). I often apply the “home decoration criterion”: would I hang that picture on my wall and look at it every day? I have no idea why I like Kandinsky, for example, but I’d be happy to live in a Kandinsky museum. If this picture is any indication, I’d live in your museum too. Ravishing.

[Susan Carroll]

Oh that is so nice!!! I LOVE Kandinsky, and Paul Klee too! Ravishing is the nicest word said yet about this piece! Thank you!

[Jim Moonan]

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I'm in Carl's category of art appreciation and I, too, would be happy to hang you on my walls along with others that I never get the courage fork up the cash to purchase.

Carl's admission that he'd "happily live in a Kandinsky museum" got me to thinking... It would make for an interesting discussion... I could happily live in a Georgia O'Keefe museum. I was at her museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico recently and would have stayed forever except for the fact that I had promises to keep : )

I am also in a period of rediscovering myself as a born poet. That makes us creative doppelgängers : ). I'm striving to revitalize my old self that I put on a shelf long ago.

I like your painting for its blueberry-ness and for its celestial body held in the throat and for its rich, controlled use of colors that hint at vibrancy but hold back from flooding the canvas with it. Given the palette of what is used to create it, I’d say the jpg. doesn’t do it justice. My guess is that it would jump and even glitter if I saw it in real time.

Welcome to the Sphere! This board does not get the traffic I wish it would, but don’t let that discourage you. The board is managed/moderated by a gifted artist (Sarah-Jane Crowson) whose work you would admire, I think. Keep posting.

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[Susan Carroll]

Thank you Jim for your response! I LOVE the 'blueberry-ness' hahahahaha it is soooo true! Yes, I am an artist who is also left brained, and that part made me money, but did not totally feed my soul. There is a lot of satisfaction in being part of building a civil structure, they will be there long after I am gone. But art was sacrificed, as I went totally left brained. now i can switch back and forth and it helps when drawing something that is foreshortened for example.

You are so right that in the light, it sparkles brightly!!!! It is a self portrait of my re=emergence.

[Phil Wood]

Great blend of materials, colour and figure. Love the curve of the birds neck around the planet. Look forward to more.

Phil

[Sarah-Jane Crowson]

Hi Susan, and welcome, and apologies that you haven't heard from me sooner.

I think your picture is vibrant and fun. It is unashamedly colourful, which I enjoy. It reminds me rather of a scarf or printed fabric, and would translate well to that medium, maybe?

I like your use of multimedia, but I wonder if it might be worthwhile considering either trying to get more textural qualities/more play with depth and colour from the paint. That, or play on the idea of the bling, rather than having it in tidy rows.

I think what I like best is the slightly surreal semi-figurative quality of the swan - the centre part of the image.

One thing that can be fun to do is to cut a small square in a piece of card, and see how your image looks when small parts of it are viewed through it, a bit like a viewfinder.

Another exercise in what I would call 'surface pattern', would be to photocopy the image and cut or tear it into small squares or units, then reassemble these - this can free up your mind - get you thinking in terms of texture and colour and how these look in different formats.

But I am not suggesting you do these, just putting them out there as potential ideas.

It is so lovely to have some visuals posted in the forum! Thank you! Welcome!

Sarah-Jane