Playing with paint

I played with pencil and paints last night and ended up with this,

an abstract ginkgo fan 'and pink snowbunny fruit salad' according to Mark.

It was inspired by a rug over at Anthropologie.. although it wasn't quite this colorful and I only kept a few of the elements from it :  Tufted Ginkgo rug

Esme said it looked like fireworks the other night.  Then, after she confirmed that I had indeed drawn it myself (I was filling in some of the last colors by then), she paused and thought : 'Ok, now you can paint a rollercoaster that goes way up and way down and Daddy and me and you and all of us can ride on it, in the painting, won't that be cool?'  Mark and I both thought that was pretty funny... but I sketched it up at work today (along with a puppy) and I might try to paint it another day.

School starts tomorrow, 'summer school', Mark said.. but it is really a pre-session for those who had not been to an every day daycare/preschool/kindergarten before.. and I think Esme will benefit from it so all of the rest of school is 'old hat' when the full fledge of children come in on August 5th.  Less than a third of the class will attend this session.. which gives the children attending time to adapt, adjust and get in a groove with the same teacher.

Notes: //    My paint kit includes only white, black, red, red ochre (not used for this), cobalt blue, cerulean blue (not used for this), yellow and magenta (not used for this).  In the past I would add a lime green, plum color and a general brown to the list for making things quickly... but I enjoyed mixing all of the colors in this painting as I went, washing the brush as little as possible, and using only one brush for the entire thing.  My art instructor in college always hated that -- he wanted me to use big brushes for big areas, and little brushes for little areas... I tend to pick a small-to-medium brush with good flexible pointed bristles and do the whole thing that way...using the bottom edge towards the handle to help scrub in big areas and the edges of the bristle points to do small things... sometimes getting a tiny detail brush in on the gig if the design demands it.    I had someone at work ask me if I was 'teaching myself to paint'... which to an extent, I always have been.. twenty years or so on and running. 

I remember when I was 9 to 10 begging my parents for a small watercolor canvas board, a tube of smudge black charcoal watercolor paint and a single brush.. it was a lot, put together, because it was an art store... but they let me have them and I painted a landscape on the way home drybrush... that single tube of paint and paintbrush were special because they were 'actual materials' .. I had children's watercolor and brushes before, but I learned a lot using the others - because I focused on it more.. and I painted a lot of birds out of my Grandmother's Audubon bird book and field guides...  Now, I am using plain acrylic craft paints and a child's brush on paper.. but I have run the gamut of materials and know what the changes are between those kind of brushes, paints, surfaces... ... I haven't painted much in the past few years (except that bird a few months ago) and I feel its about time to go at it again.. see what comes out.