Written by And so, another work week ends and a shiny new weekend begins, with a little bluebird in a tree in answer to today’s prompt. I’m not a landscape painter as I like to view life a bit more macro, so this seemed like a good option. I do rather enjoy painting branches of trees as they’re such a strange system of unexpected bumps and shapes. Birds can be described much the same way actually and I find them devilishly difficult to get just right, hence the practice. Since I tend to dance around from subject to subject my practice comes days or even months between when it comes to any one subject in particular. But it’s so much fun to explore the world, sketch by sketch. Trying new subjects, odd perspectives, and generally exploring all the little ephemera of life is what excites me most. It’s a thrill to explore new things each day and see what might happen each time I sit down to sketch and paint. Most often, I have zero clue what I’m going to paint just before I do so and quickly make this post. I hope when you show up to see what I did, you are also enjoying the ride!
Tonight I’m running a bit late as I wasn’t able to make this post before dinner was served. It was delicious and consisted of pasta and clams. Philippe remarked that he thought he did things out of order and didn’t think this version was as good as the last. In truth, it was incredibly delicious, but yes, something seemed to be a bit different. He asked me, as though the guy who can’t boil an egg properly might actually know, what he did before. I had the extreme pleasure of reminding him that there’s a fun cookbook out now called “DO Cook!” that contains that very recipe. He actually rushed to our dining room table and grabbed a copy and looked it up and realized what he did out of order. I’m not sure if many people will actually buy our book in the end, but it was so much fun to direct him to a published version of the very recipe he was trying to sort out and remember. And it will be lovely to have that little bit of our family history captured should he ever forget again.
Though I love to paint the world in close-up, I tend to view the world from a distance. I love seeing things as they happen and enjoying each moment for what it brings. While I love to explore little details while painting, I don’t really pay as much attention to those tiny details in daily life. I’ve always been what some have called a “big picture” thinker. Someone who sees an entire concept often before others can do so. This is how I’ve made a career as a Creative Director and what I do each day in my day job. So, it’s quite lovely to focus a bit more and explore intricate details. Perhaps that’s why my work has become an impossible mix of realistic sketches and wildly unexpected ramblings. It’s a mixture of the two worlds I constantly try to balance each and every day. Looking ahead and realizing visions to create new solutions to problems can be an exhausting thing indeed. Watercolor has helped me relax a bit, and enjoy the minutiae of everyday life and explore those bits of detail that I often miss while I’m spending so much time being a bird in a tree.
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About the DoodlewashDa Vinci Paint Co.: Benzimida Orange, Quinacridone Red, Cobalt Turquoise and Cobalt Blue. Lamy Al-Star Safari Fountain Pen with sepia ink in an A5 Hahnemühle Watercolour Book. |
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Lovely painting. I especially like the buds on the branch.
Thanks so much, Sharon! 😃💕 Yay, I love that, since tree was actually the prompt today. 😊hehe… glad you liked the branch!
Well done! Great bird.
Thanks so much, Lisa! 😃💕
I think your bird is a fine fellow and beautifully done. It sounds like you do a fabulous job of balancing both aspects of your life. I wish we could all do as well! Amazon still hasn’t given me a shipping date, on the DO cookbook, so I’m not sure what’s going on with that.
Thanks so much, Sandra! 😃💕 Ugh… thanks for letting me know. I reached out to Amazon and got an odd reply… might have been a bot and not a human. I’m checking into it!
Amazing painting! 🙂
Aww thanks so much, Jui! 😃💕
Whatever wildness has Phillipe cooking and you painting (and Phineas sneezing) it comes together beautifully. I love birds and this packet of blue and gold feathers perched on a twig about to bloom is perfect and lovely.
Thanks so much, Sharon! 😃💕 lol… we sound like a perfectly crazy trio with that description, which means it’s the perfect one I think! Glad you liked this!
Congratulations 💐🌼 for the cooking book.
🐦 is very pretty.
Thanks so much, Snehlata! 😃💕Glad you liked how it turned out. It’s so fun to have some of Philippe’s recipes finally captured in print!
That’s truly one of the most beautiful little paintings I’ve ever seen, and a lovely story to go with it! Charlie, you are getting better and better! 💕
Now I have something to mention that’s not so happy, and that is about the impossible LAG with the site. Isn’t there anything WordPress can do about it? I want to spend more time on here, looking at the artwork, reading and commenting, but it takes forever to load a page, then a comment, or even to register a like. Especially if I log in with WordPress, then it’s even worse! It’s the only site where I have this problem, and if I try to reply to a comment you’ve made, it takes almost a full 5 minutes to load the comment, and then usually my comment disappears. It’s frustrating, because Doodlewash is a reward after a busy day or week, but I can’t afford that much time. Is there anything that can be done about it? Thank you, Charlie.
Thanks so much, Miste! 😃💕 Glad you liked this bird! And hmmm…. There was a lag with Doodlewash, but it appears to be loading fine now. I’m not seeing those issues on my end. But good to know as I’ll check into it. The only real option is to switch hosts to something other than WordPress.com which I’ve looked into. They made lots of changes, so one thing you might try is clearing your browser cache. Site might load a touch slower the first time, but might help with the other issues.
Lovely and amazing painting ,Good keep it up:)
Thanks so much! Glad you liked it! 😃💕