Days 16-18 Special Weekend Edition

Hi folks,

The past few days have kept me busy as Bryan and I decided to move some furniture in our living room....which turned into moving nearly all the furniture and reorganizing our book collection, plus moving a larger chair out of storage into our living room, and taking down our Christmas decorations.  Once everything is looking nice I'll put up a few pictures.  However, Thursday night I fell into bed after moving more things than I'd intended and Friday continued the trend.

Today we've been running errands and getting things done.  But this morning I photographed my latest completed painting.

While working small is fun I think on Tuesday (tomorrow and the Monday holiday I'll be busy) I'll be focus on some larger scale pieces.  This smaller scale piece in particular was more challenging for texture of the canvas alone.  It's got the Shiva casein paints as the base colors, Neocolor II wax pastels for many of the more detailed areas, plus some touches of white acrylic.  I think once I get through all the mini canvases I'll be switching to some other small format backing.  I just wish there were more small sized art boards and out there with cradled backs.  The smallest I've found is 4"x4" from Dick Blick Art Supplies, but I'd try just about anything I could find at this point.  Also, I decided to go look on Blick's site and saw these lovely panels which I would love to work on.

I've tried unfinished wood, but with the first hint of watercolor there's warping and bleeding if you aren't very very cautious.  There are just so many interesting supplies I'd love to try!

In other news, I've had my first pledge on Kickstarter!  Only 3 weeks left to the campaign.  So if you readers are interested check it out.  I appreciate any traffic I can get even if it's simply word of mouth.  Check it out http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lydiadickson/art-for-all-year-2014

Well, I'll be back on Tuesday, but until then I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Love, Lydia

Day 15

Hi!

So today was productive for me in a wide variety of ways.  I worked on two pieces, and did some brainstorming and sketching for a couple more, including one of the 2'x2' tiles for Healing Ceilings.  I've got one of the tiles for them about half done, with some knotwork and background still needed to complete it.  I got one of the casein paintings really close to completion and am trying to decide if I'll be adding any collage elements, though I think because it's so small I might not, it's just on a tiny 2"x2" canvas.

Beyond that I did a lot of boring housework that needed to be done, mostly so I'll be freed up tomorrow to work on art and putting away all of our Christmas decorations.  I worked on some online ways of earning a little extra income, surveys and the like, since so far I've had no pledges on Kickstarter.  And then this evening Bryan and I had my brother-in-law over for a game night which lasted til midnight.

So, now I'll see you all tomorrow, with hopefully a more exciting update including some pictures of newly completed pieces.  I came so close today...but sometimes you just have to pause and come back to a piece to figure out what final touches it needs.

Love, Lydia