The Evolution of a New Painting

 I’ve been working on a painting I'll call, "We're All In This . . . ", for quite some time.  Most of the work has been drawing the animals and the line designs and also some tentative explorations into color using pastels.  Today (August 19th) I began the oil paint layer. 
I will post new images as the painting evolves.  

Here is the way the painting looked when I started working on it again on August 19, 2023:

Then here is the painting as the new layer of color begins to be added:

The line designs are being covered more or less by the blended colors but I’m keeping the animal drawings visible.  My goal is mystery, beauty and the fun of trying to find all the animals.

My grandson encouraged me to keep working on this piece when he said, “Grama, did you know there’s a hummingbird in this painting?!”  And then he stood looking at the painting for some time trying to find all the other things.  Most of the critters depicted live nearby in the woods on and around our property.

Now there's a little more of the new layer of blended color.  It's a bit uncomfortable for me to show a painting in public before it's finished.  But it's very good encouragement for me to continue, get it done and really focus to make it as good as it can be during the process. 
I'm very curious to see how it all turns out!

Later that same day I was able to paint a little more:

In the image below you can see that I did a little more painting across the middle and on the left side.  At some point I'll probably have to balance out the yellow color but first I need to finish painting this new layer over the whole painting.

It's been a few days since the last update but the painting is now done.  It was finished on September 8, 2023.  Below is the final version.  The overall blueness of the painting did change somewhat but it is accentuated by the photograph being taken outside on a cloudy day.  All the previous photos were taken in the studio.  This is a good example of how different a painting can look in different light; not just in photographs but in real life, too.

"We're All In This . . . . "      38 x 24     

oil painting with a bit of pastel on canvas, casein fixative and varnish

$1800.00

I counted more than 25 mammals, birds, insects and humans in the painting.  I'm sure you can find as many or more, although it may be a challenge to see details like that onscreen.  

While I was working on this painting I was reading about A.I. ("Life 3.0" by Max Tegmark), climate change problems ("The Heat Will Kill You First" by Jeff Goodell) and alien technology ("The Dual Soul Connection:  The Alien Agenda for Human Advancement" by Suzy Hansen) - all very interesting books.  So, besides my own intuitive ideas and feelings I was getting lots of conscious and subconscious ideas from the books.  

I don't usually talk about my ideas behind my paintings because I like viewers to form their own ideas, but I'll make an exception for this blog. :)  The painting feels like we're all in this world together, trying to do our best - living, working, mending, weaving, melding together nature and technology but things are unraveling.  There's still a lot of beauty and magic.  We all need to be positive, optimistic and hopeful for the present and the future.  (Try not to listen to the regular news.)

Thank you for spending time with my artwork!

Love and Light to you all.

And, as always, if you have any questions about the artwork please email me:

skyegentle@gmail.com

Epilogue

It's Monday, September 11th, and yesterday evening I found out that this painting was accepted into the juried show at the Oliver Art Center and that it has won an award - which award I do not yet know.