No Rust

Paint is a fabulous tool for learning to play with color. Small bottles of acrylic paint are available in the six primaries as well as a wide selection of colors and cost less than $1.50. These are typically used for folk art painting but are just as much acrylic paint as those in the art section only way less expensive. One little bottle goes a long way. If you want to explore color, pick up the primaries, a white, a black, and an extender and you can play (and learn) to your heart's content. This would have been one of the assignments of the class in Victoria only...

... I decided this morning to cancel it. The organizer was willing to wait until the end of the week only that seemed like dragging out the inevitable to me and I wanted a happy ending to closing the business. I did not want the very last thing that I did to be the cancellation of a workshop. That wouldn't be good.

Now that I'm not teaching, the rest of this week will be focused on finishing up these pieces, then we have a long weekend, and Tuesday is the start of school - the start of the "new year". After I drop Kyle off, I'll be taking my journal to the local coffee shop as usual. What will be unusual is that this year, I won't be setting business goals. I'll be looking at personal development. I AM SO EXCITED but first - back to painting.

When you're playing with paint, along with paying attention to what happens when mixing colors, pay attention to the water when you wash out the brush. You'll see quite quickly whether the color has a blue or yellow base. This is especially fascinating with black. The one that I use washes out blue.




All day yesterday I painted. Three of the canvasses are now black with black edges, two are turquoise with black edges, and two are purple with black edges. These seven were no problem whatsoever. The other two were a BIG problem. They were for the blue piece in the color series and the last piece in the texture series, both of which have a rust accent point. My plan was to paint them rust. Tried that. Not.




They are now blue with black edges however they have also been rust, yellow, sienna, orange with a purple overlay, and a few other variations along the way. The other pieces - like magenta above and T1 below - all looked great on a canvas painted a shade of the accent but not those two. It took work. I learned lots. I'm done painting. YES YES.



The three black canvasses have two layers of paint. Each of the other canvasses has at least a base coat, a transparent layer of darker color, and a transparent and textured layer of black, with two layers of black around the edges. Some have more than that. Read LOTS OF DRYING TIME. I knit while waiting.




While I had the paint out, I did the edges on these pieces from my class in June with Chin Yuen. I'll do a bit more work to the tops as well but now they're much closer to finished and useable. I have four or five canvasses in the studio that I can use to explore painting even more. It's rather fun although I don't ever see myself as a painter.

This morning is Arts & Crafts Club and tonight is Knit Night so I'll be doing a lot of knitting today and hopefully will finish the two fronts and start on the sleeves. While it's boring to be re-knitting this sweater, it's definitely going to fit this time. I was willing to re-knit it because it's so pretty and I love the fabric and want it to fit BUT... I'd also like to finish this piece up before I start sewing. I want any "loose" ends tied up and finished and done. It's an emotional thing.

While knitting and painting, I've been thinking about how to fit the sweater in with my wardrobe plan, inspired by some blog postings by Em In The Studio called Overhauled My Wardrobe Plan Again, Gray Twinset Done, and From Small to Big. She details an all about jeans wardrobe that she's developing. It's quite an interesting plan. Focusing on jeans makes sense for me too. With the business closing, I'm even more of a "from home" Mom so dressy-casual is as good as it can get BUT, it wouldn't be hard to add some dressier pants and skirts when I get a job. I'm thinking it over.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - made a decision about Victoria rather than waiting