Acrylics, Watercolors and a Commission

Today's post has a hodgepodge of my art, all of them animals but some are rendered in acrylics and two of them in watercolor, which is a fairly new medium for me.

The next two are the watercolor paintings, which are similar to my acrylics and at the same time much more delicate.

And this last painting is a commission that I painted for my client's sister of her four pets. I sure had fun with this one!

I still have a charcoal drawing to show you and also some of my latest abstract art. Sometimes I feel the need to just experiment with colors, shapes and different mediums.

In the meantime, I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday!

❧ Silke

A Little Art and Some Thoughts

Dear friends, I hope you have been well! I haven't posted in a while, which means I have a good bit of art to show you. So much, in fact, that I'm dividing it into a few posts. 

This morning I was thinking about my blog and how I have gotten away from it. It made me feel a little wistful. You know I like change. I like how life progresses, how I change (otherwise I would have never started painting), how nothing ever stays the same, how there are seasons for everything.

And at the same time, there are some things I used to love to do that don't come easily anymore, friends we used to hang out with a lot who now live far away from us,  places we used to live and love, which we now don't get back to much anymore, places we used to travel to a lot, which we now don't anymore. It fills me with a bittersweet melancholy.

And there's my blog, which I used to love. I looked forward to posting every day, to connecting every day and to discover new things for all of my readers. Everything that delighted me, I'd think: "Oh, I have to share that on my blog." Where has that excitement gone?

There was a period of great loss in my small blogging world. Two of my earliest and dear, dear blogging friends passed away and it took the levity and fun out of blogging for me. And I think I've never quite gotten it back after that. Maybe it's time!

As I write this, I realize it's the birthday today of one of those two dear friends and I believe she is giving me a nudge! I need to blog again! I need to connect again!

I miss it. I miss being in touch with you all. I am very active on Facebook, which is really fun in its own way, but it's not the same. I don't really share my thoughts on Facebook. Mostly photos and definitely my art. Still, I love how I can be connected to family and old and new friends in such an easy way. It's also how I sell most of my art and I am very grateful for that. But it's not the same as sharing my life and my thoughts on my blog.

Ok, that decided it. It's time! I have changed and I need to write about it.

I miss you all! And I love you!

❧ Silke 
P.S. Linking to the always inspiring Paint Party Friday! I'm so grateful for their unfailing weekly inspiration! 

Nothing Stays the Same

I know this. I know that change is the order of things. I know that the only constant in life really is change. And of course my art has to evolve just like everything else, but it catches me by surprise every time.

I really made a commitment early on that I would let my intuition guide and drive my art and that's what I try to do. So, you can see by the elephant and the bird that my color palette was changing. A little darker, calmer and subdued.

And I kept feeling a need to paint more complex paintings, small and large. Today, I'm only showing the small ones as the larger ones are in the sketch phase only at this point.

The background above happened by me dripping high-flow acrylics into watered down absorbent ground. It made for such cool shapes. When I put this on Facebook, one of my friends saw a horse in the upper right, another saw the face in the lower left and I filled in the rest.  I love this painting!

The same with the one below - the figures were suggested by the shapes in the background and I just went with it.

And this one is really different. She was all there in the shapes, wing and all. We'll see where this leads.

Already in the background I created today, some warmer colors are sneaking back in. The textures of this piece are amazing! We'll see what it wants to become. 

And now a few photos I snapped around town and in our back yard (the flower photos at the end!). Savannah is full of "secret" gardens and whenever I walk through town, I try to find one of two.  

Everything is starting to bloom and it is gorgeous!

Winslow and I spotted this heron on our walk yesterday. It was so focused, it totally ignored us.

 And this color is all from our garden. It is spring here in the South and everything is waking up!

Head on over to Paint Party Friday for more beautiful art and inspiring blog posts!

I wish you a colorful, warm and sunny week! 

❧ Silke

Art and More

I'm late with this week's post, but I have a good excuse. Sunshine! And warm temperatures. It's been gorgeous this weekend and I have spent much time outside. I'll have some outdoor photos later in my post, but first this week's art!

This mountain lion just wouldn't come together, so I just kept working at it and adding more layers and wiping them off and adding another. And suddenly, there it was! Beautiful and intense.

The swans are somewhat unusual. They look like they are floating under disco lights. Strangely enough, I painted them around Valentine's day. Totally unintentional and very heart-shaped!

The gorilla took a little while, plus one revision after I thought it was done. I had to lighten the background to make the face stand out a little more. I had fun with this one and the swan painting using my stencils. I used them to apply paint and also wiped off layers of paint with rubbing alcohol through the stencil and got some great texture that way.

I love this snake! It looks as intense as it probably is. I'm happy I don't see them in the wild too often. In fact, having lived in areas heavily populated by poisonous snakes, I have only ever seen three in nature. And none of those times was I in any danger. I'm very glad!

The following four photos are of the backgrounds I prepared for this next week's small paintings. All of them have two layers of high-flow acrylic paint.  I'm hoping they will be just as beautiful when they are all finished.

This next photo just makes me laugh. One of my dear friends from childhood sent us two espresso cups from Germany. One smiles and the other one sports this sad, sad face. I was sitting at the table and noticed the ceramic woman a friend brought back for us from Santiago de Compostela in Spain last year. She, too, looks so very sad. It had quite the opposite effect on me and had me giggling and reaching for my camera.

Daniel has been beyond busy with work and this weekend I made him drive to Tybee Island with me and go for a walk on the beach. He was brave and walked in the water even though the ocean is still very cold. It looks like we were the only ones there, but the beach was full of people who had the same idea. It was wonderful and somehow makes us feel more relaxed instantly!

The artist in me always notices things in nature that I would have overlooked before getting into art.

Here I was totally enamored by these tree forms the waves left in the sand. Aren't they pretty?

Speaking of nice weather, we've put a bit of time into our yard this weekend and planted several kinds of lettuce, parsley, cilantro, kale, zinnias and poppies. The poppies never come up, yet we put out seeds every year in hopes that maybe this year will be different. We'll see. The zinnias always do exceptionally well and give us cut flowers for the house all summer long. Can't wait!!

I took these photos this morning in our yard. The daffodils are blooming, the kumquats are ready to be eaten, the yarrow is starting to flower and a few azalea buds are getting ready to open. They won't really bloom until mid-March, but they are announcing that spring is coming!

On that note, I hope you are seeing sings of spring where you are. I know that the weather hasn't been great in northern Europe where many of my family and friends live. I wish I could bottle up some sunshine and warmth for you who live there...

I wish you sunny days, a happy heart and flowers to bring you joy! Until next week...

❧ Silke

Art and Movies

This week I've had a few things going on and only finished two small paintings.

I Like You
acrylics on 5 x 7 inch Gessobord
available at Daily Paintworks

I did prepare these four small Gessobords and will paint the other two this next week. And hopefully more. I love the daily practice of painting something. It really helps me stay loose in my work and not worry about it being "right."

I already know what the third painting is going to be, but I have no idea about the background in the lower right corner. I just don't quite see it yet...

The armadillo is a little more whimsical than my "normal" paintings, but then armadillos are really whimsical creatures. I had never seen them in the wild really until a few years ago. We were down at Cape Canaveral National Seashore around this time of year and saw them everywhere. Their faces are just adorable!

On my Way
acrylics on 5 x 7 inch Gessobord
available at Daily Paintworks

During the last few weeks Daniel and I went to see these two movies and we loved both of them! Not only where they good stories with good actors, but the costumes and the colors were just so beautiful! 

And the other thing we both noticed was how calmly they were filmed. I've gotten so used to the modern way of filming where the camera angle changes every few seconds that these movies felt downright relaxing to me.

It also made us both think back to the time when we weren't so connected electronically (both stories took place at a time before cell phones and such). We both love being connected to our families, friends and the world at large, but I sometimes find that I can barely remember what it was like to not be reachable around the clock.  But only for a moment.

And then I remembered how much I love everything that's possible now - being able to skype with my family and friends in Germany, connecting with friends around the world with such ease, writing my blog, being connected to you, being incredibly inspired whenever I need it, taking online classes with people from around the world, many of whom have become dear friends, and, and, and. 

How amazing that I get to live at a time when this is possible! Otherwise I probably would not have connected with most of you and I can't quite imagine that.

Speaking of connecting, I am linking again to the always wonderful Paint Party Friday and Creative Every Day. 

I hope you will all have a wonderful weekend! And those of you in the path of the winter storm up north, stay safe! And warm!!

With love, 

❧ Silke

February Theme and New Paintings

Dear friends! Time is flying by. I cannot believe that January is already gone and today is the first day of February. I try to savor every day, but somehow they get away from me....

Raven Magic
Acrylics on 12 x 12 in. canvas

Remember how before the new year, I drew an oracle card for each month to give me a theme to relax into and explore. Of course I use an animal oracle deck (surprise, surprise!), which I just love and my theme animal for the month of February is the Dove.

The Root of All Wisdom
Acrylics on 24 x 24 in. canvas

I had completely forgotten about it. This afternoon I sat in our yard with Daniel and heard a pair of doves cooing and said to him that I don't know why, but that is one of the most peaceful sounds for me. I think I associate it with summertime when I was a kid. It's peaceful and comforting and makes me feel loved and safe.

Leading with Love
Acrylics on 12 x 24 in. canvas

The symbolism for the dove is (among others, I'm sure) hope, serenity, slowing down, breathing and inner peace. I like all of that and need more of it as I plunge head-first fully into my life as an artist.

I am looking forward to this new month. To relaxing into my inner peace, to breathing deeply and remembering to take time to just be.

Wishing you inner peace, hope and lots of love! And a few giggles along the way...

❧ Silke
P.S. You'd think I'd have painted a dove for this, but not so. I hope you enjoy my other paintings instead. 

Paintings

Dear friends, I so love all of your comments on my last posts - there is such wisdom, kindness and support in this community. It amazes me again and again! And if fills my heart with gratitude! 

Yesterday, after asking myself how I would be different if I didn't care what others thought, a funny thing happened. I was suddenly ready to let go of my two oil paintings. That was unexpected.

Why would I want to hang on to them in the first place? Well, I do love them and I won't be sorry at all if they don't sell and stay here with me. But often I think I hang on to my paintings because I don't want to put them "out there" where they might get scrutinized and criticized.

Right now, that doesn't seem to matter to me. What matters is that I have a gift and I'm ready to share it! That's a very nice feeling indeed!!

Both are available in my Etsy Shop.

Yesterday, I started another oil painting and for some reason I found it frustrating. Part of the fun of  working with oils is that they dry so slowly and you can rework your painting for a long time. And part of the utter frustration I have with oil paints is that they dry so slowly and it's hard to paint over an area I don't like. Yesterday I really wanted the painting to dry fast...

So, today I think I'll get out my acrylics to just play with color and see what happens. It's a light-hearted play sort of day! I hope for you, too!!

With lots of love and appreciation,

❧ Silke