The Mystery on the Easel: 2:8

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Okey-dokey!  For the last time folks – here we go

2:1

Easel 1 June

2:2

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2:3

2:4

5

2:5

6

2:6

2:7

 

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It was around about now as I flipped through the process pics yet again that I suddenly realised I had painted my life – it’s all here in little vignettes that maybe only I can understand.  It was a shock, then I laughed and looked through it all again, yep!!  – I painted my life!!

Well that turned out to be a really good experiment!

The daisies each represent a time when my life changed – being me, always done dramatically, but always leading me further on up the road so to speak.

The daisies are important so I just kept on playing with colour and form and light and shade, building them up……..  I often don’t know when to stop and almost a whole day went past……

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The background was deepened and earlier layers were built up, allowing them to add their voice to the final canvas. More gold was added, eventually it edged the entire piece and mixed into leaf and calyx.

And as the sun set, I finally called it done hdr

You can’t see all the glimmery, shimmery bits sadly.  But here’ s a couple of close-ups. maybe you might catch a bit in there

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Thank you so much for sharing this process with me – I’ve loved reading your thoughts and Geoff’s increasingly wild and wacky comments as it’s gone on.  I hope you enjoyed all that too.

Oh – and for my Canadian friends – Happy 150th birthday!  Here’s Siddy doing his bit for the celebrations and honouring his favourite Canuck aunty Kelly

16 4 17 Canadian bandana

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!

78 thoughts on “The Mystery on the Easel: 2:8”

  1. I’m also visiting for the first time from Robin’s blog. What a treat! Watching the creative process was, indeed, like watching the transformation of a soul. Amazing and beautiful!

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  3. I’m here from Robin’s blog. Beautiful painting! I like how you shared the process–and how you discovered how each stage also covered your life. Isn’t it funny how our creative processes often reveal things we didn’t expect? 😉

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    • Robin sent you? How lovely! Thank you for visiting and leaving me such a lovely comment. Your final sentence of course nailed the creative process. This was my first brave attempt at a totally unplanned, no-head-allowed process – hence the loud music, do and walk away. And the mostly appalled response to each layer 😀 And then, when the penny dropped I totally fell in love ……. I’m so glad you came by and left this message. Thank you xo

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  4. I am so glad you listened and shared my joy with me! Carrie is such a trooper, just kept going and forging through life, met Daniel at work. He’s so nice, gentle yet strong.
    The wedding gown from her first attempt, bridesmaids’ and flower girl’s dresses are still stuck in my closet. The best thing about the first groom to be, was he bailed out. 😉
    Hugs to you, dear Pauline! I took a photo of daisies and will include a link to you soon!! 🙂 🙂

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    • It’s a very devastating experience for a young woman isn’t it. I had a friend to whom it happened – she was literally left standing at the altar – and never quite recovered from the whole awful experience. I am happy Carrie has found her true love – good things sometimes take a while to fall into place. ❤

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      • It all worked out in the end, as they say. Thanks for your thoughtful remark, I know having girls you particularly understand how we may worry and fret. It could have devastated her but having her boys helped give her purpose.
        So sorry for your friend. Very sad and how unfeeling of him!
        Carrie and Daniel are one of those couples who seem like they have the potential to make it last. 💕

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  5. I wish you had told me on my post, “Robin start backwards and no peeking!”
    Your layered life’s journey Painting from basic primary swirls of younger day’s crayons to the fully developed, gorgeous painting of the vignettes and snippets of your life’s adventure is WONDERFUL!
    I apologise that while up and away for awhile, you were commenting on my blog but I was spending time with my Mom from 8 am until 2, then with my brother Rich who ran a race and also, scrubbed potatoes, (I did this for the Kiwanis fundraiser of spiral fries at my old hometown fair). I had fun going to the brewery opening with Randy’s artwork. Thanks for all your lovely comments! 😊💗
    Finally, I came home Friday, to help my oldest daughter, Carrie have a first, simple wedding to a younger man who dearly loves her and her boys!
    I had made her bouquet before I left, leaving her $17 wedding dress ironically in the same room as thousand dollar’s worth of gowns are in closet from her first never happened marriage. (Groom-to-be fled, left her and her boys one week before the wedding a long time ago).
    What was meant to be, happened! 💕 I arrived two hours prior to the wedding. Back to my “real home,” where I raised my children and grandies live close by me.
    On 7/7/17, Carrie and Daniel wed at City Hall. The small gathering included I as guest, Carrie’s boys Skyler, Micah and the Mayor Carolyn Riggles who cried, as I did. She’s as sentimental as I am. 🙂 She has two girls who went to school with my girls. . .
    Carrie’s 37 and not sure how old Daniel is, but a bit younger.
    Later for dinner, the Bride and Groom, my son, his wife, my youngest daughter and her boyfriend plus me, the seventh wheel (instead of a “third wheel”) all were together at a nice restaurant called, “1808.” 💞🍾🍷🍷
    Thanks for listening to my belated arrival, Pauline! I may never post photos, just a few know of the happy occasion as I make my rounds. Hugs, Robin
    Hello and pats to the sweet Siddy and the aloof Orlando. xo 💖

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    • Hello Robin! ❤ Thank you for your update full of wonderful news – most importantly the lovely wedding of your dear eldest daughter, mother to those special children and so deserving of a happy wedding day. It makes us mothers so happy when our children are happy doesn't it 🙂 Also I hope your mom is doing well, I'm glad to hear you got to spend time with her this summer. Thanks for visiting Robin – sorry you missed all the fun and games along the way 😀

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  7. If you are selling, I am buying! Seriously!
    I adore this, and if nothing else, I’d love note cards or something.
    Just wonderful.
    You are so talented!

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    • The highest form of praise is that someone would offer to buy something an artist has made – thank you for that boost to my artistic self esteem 🙂 The Official Photographer will attempt to take a good photograph of it, then we will see what can be done. I will happily gift it to you if you wait and see if it will fit in your suitcase – seeing it in the flesh is important and you might change your mind – plus shipping would be crazy. xoxo

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  8. I recall the circles/swirls in 2.4 … and I didn’t anticipate they would become daisies! … I like the final product … well done, Pauline!

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  9. When I was a kid daisies were huge. They were on fabrics especially, but they were so popular. Your painting made me realize I rarely see them anymore, and these are so beautiful and hopeful. I’m glad you included the closeups because you’re right–all the complexity isn’t seen from farther away.

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  10. Very beautiful, Pauline. I like your comparison to painting life, how one thing morphs into another and the many layers also like life. I’m sure each phase has a stronger meaning for you, but I can certainly see the comparison. Art is glorious like that 😀

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  12. One again a perfect painting. I love it. Thank you for sharing your process with us. I love watching it. Thank you too for the photo of Siddy. He’s quite the little boy.

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  13. I love this so much, Pauline. Daisies are my favorite flowers and have a lot of meaning for me and my journey through life, too. 🙂

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    • That is so nice to know Robin! And I don’t think it’s just us – there is something quite special about this unpretentious little flower – I must look up their meaning in the world of flower giving…… ❤

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      • I looked up daisies in Ted Andrews’ book, “Nature-Speak.” Not sure why I never looked before. Here’s a bit from it:

        “It’s mythology has been associated with the goddess Freya of Teutonic lore and also the Dryads of Greek lore. It is associated with the energies of love and strength.

        …It is symbolic of the sun and the light shining out from it.

        … A lot of daisies are known as biennial, meaning they live for two years. This unique cycle often reflects that this same cycle either is or has been at play in your life, in regards to some activity or endeavor. Are you coming to the end of a two year cycle and need to re-plant? Are you starting something new right now? If so, look for it to have a two year run for you.

        This is a flower which alerts to the individual an energy, which increases creativity on all levels. There will occur a greater synthesis of ideas, and there will also occur a greater understanding of the archetypal forces in Nature and how they manifest in individual lives. This is a flower that is drawing to fairies and nature spirits, so those who align themselves with it can open themselves up to commune and work with them more fully. It stimulates a spiritualizing of the intellect.”

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        • Oh my! This is a book I don’t know of – and how has this happened? (Rhetorical question 🙂 ) Thank you for sharing this bit – which is making me think some more – and introducing me to another Ted Andrews book. This fits me in so many ways – does it you too?

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          • It does. Especially this part: “It stimulates a spiritualizing of the intellect.” 🙂

            “Nature-Speak” is interesting in that Andrews covers plants, trees, herbs, landscapes, etc., in a way that is similar to how he covered animals in “Animal Speak.” The only problem I have with the book is that it is poorly edited and that typo, which was mine, was actually my attempt to correct “It mythology it has been associated with…” (which, of course, should be “IN mythology” so I don’t know where I got the “It’s” from…lol!… my brain must have been multitasking at the time).

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            • Durn! I hate poorly edited books – they make me very cross and I usually stop reading them! But maybe your heads up will have forewarned me enough to be more tolerant – I shall read with a pencil in my hand 🙂 Interestingly it was that same sentence that attracted my attention, that and the reference to the two year cycle……. I read ‘Animal Speak’ years (and years) ago along with a couple of others which I don’t recall off-hand. Maybe the reason I don’t recall is because I have wiped them from my memory if they were poorly edited 🙂
              I appreciate your editing attempt 😀

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  14. It never ceases to amaze me how artists get from A to B. The start of this process is almost unrecognisable from the finish. Where does that ability to link everything together and come out with a glorious outcome actually come from?! The creative spark is bright in this one young padawan…

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  15. Gorgeous! And I don’t just mean Siddy. How wonderful that you not only produced a beautiful painting, but found deeper meaning in all the stages you painted. Thank you for sharing this process with us. Loved it!

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  18. I’m going to be honest and say I didn’t have a lot of hope for liking the finished product of this exercise–and I am SO pleased to be wrong! I can’t believe the transformation–and it’s wonderful now! Plus, I really liked hearing your thoughts about it, all throughout the process and now that you’re articulating how it is meaningful to you. So . . . when do we start the next one?! 😉

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    • I know – I felt the same! It started off in an ugly phase and determinedly stuck in there throughout the whole process – I’m not sure I like it even now – too many flowers……… but it is always the process that is important and this turned into a super one!

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      • May I suggest updated that last closeup to Vida? I could also see that as a beautiful scarf. What you see as “too many flowers” might be just the right pattern for a scarf. Just thinking out loud. It’s extraordinary to me what you’ve done here, Pauline. The mix of colors, layers, textures, words, the the removal of color. Extraordinary.

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  19. So you’ve found a way to share the growth of your life with us all. Not many can say that. What a stunning end result! I love all the layers and depth of it. Overwhelmingly beautiful, just like your heart. Have a wonderfilled weekend and give that handsome devil a chin scratch for me. I could just squeeze him. Hugs for you and Orlando too. 🙂

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    • Yes, apparently so Marlene – I am awed by the power and process of the subconscious when the head gets out of the way! I guess this canvas can go back in the cupboard now – it’s job is done 🙂 He is a handsome devil isn’t he – and he so likes his maple leaf bandanna he refused to take it off last night and slept in it 🙂

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      • You can’t put it in the cupboard!!!! It’s too beautiful! Yes, Siddy is a handsome devil and how interesting that he likes a kerchief. I could never keep them on my dog even for an hour. Maybe he knows how much love is in it and who it’s from ..:)

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  23. Well those flowers made me go “OH” with surprise. I love your flowers, always bring a smile to my dial. How amazing to see the finished product, just lovely. It’s been an interesting journey to see, thank you x. Siddy looks adorable ( I whispered that so Toby and Snoopy didn’t hear :D)

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  25. Well, I must say, your life turned out rather beautiful! Those daisies are magnificent, Pauline. This is such a stunning painting. I love it. Postcards? Tote?

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