This painting measures 24"x38"

 

 

Starting with a sketch.  At this point, I want it to be a disturbing interior, surrounded by decorative elements.

 

 

So I spent a ridiculous amount of time painting on these flower silhouettes.

 

 

My original thought for this piece was inspired by the musical, Little Shop of Horrors, but in this version the plant is molesting the doll.  Let me say at this point, that I love her shoes and they are the main reason it took me so long to fix this piece, because I didn’t want to loose those shoes!  Silly!  With the background, I wanted to layer another color with larger flowers and then play with the overlapping and negative space.

 

 

This is the point when all hell started breaking loose.  I added the “peanut gallery” in the back, but I really don’t know why, perhaps to intensify the discomfort in the piece?  Well, the main problem is that they can not logically fit in that terrarium.  Apparently, I didn’t like the face or body, but I don’t remember why not.  They definitely had the creepy factor.

 

 

It has begun….who is controlling this painting? 

 

 

I was not achieving the results I wanted and the party had gotten out of control.  Everybody out!  Headless bug, you can stay.

 

 

The simple figure interacting with the headless bug and the solemn tree seems to express the emotions better. In the end, I think those rocks and the bug are the only original elements.

 

 

Working on the values.

 

 

The background, which was supposed to be the opposite of the interior, looked like “Swamp Thing” wallpaper.  Argh!  Maybe some cheery pink succulents will help?

 

No, that didn’t work.  Maybe I should add some really tall blossoms?  I am really digging the interior, but what the #$*&$# is going on outside?

 

 

I started the pattern on the doll.  It is hard to see in this version, but the pattern is made of tiny skulls and crossbones.  I had a critique were it was suggested that the patterns play a more obvious role in the narrative, and I liked that idea.

 

 

Developing the interior further and completely stuck on the exterior.

 

 

Patterns for the tree and insect.  Oh, and have a mentioned I have a thing for red shoes?

 

 

I try a teal glaze on the background and start a pattern on the jar.

 

 

Those darn flowers.  Now they had little pod people in them.  It may be good to note that I was starting to freak out about the Indy show and whether I would finish this piece in time to show there.  I think the added stress clouded my judgment on this piece.  I am thrilled with the final piece, but I think I had something interesting in the beginning.  That is when these progression images haunt me.

 

 

I have tried switching the flowers to pine trees and I am much happier with them, but the piece is still all-over gloomy.

 

 

Blue skies almost always seem cheerful and they help the trees stand out better.  But gosh, all that work gone.  I swear to myself at this point that I will start sketching and planning ahead better so I don’t waste so much time, but as you will see with “Brocade Barricade,” some pieces just have to evolve on their own. 

 

 

Another issue I have been struggling with is how the exterior is represented in the interior. This element to all the pieces has been challenging, but I have enjoyed figuring them out.

 

 

There are a lot of changes between this version and the final, the main difference being the sky.  In this version there are wispy white clouds, but they blend too much with the white pattern of the jar.  I decide to bring in some hot pink/coral, which pops nicely against the blue sky.  I also define the jar pattern more and bump up the colors on the figure.

 

View the finished piece Like a Hole in the Head

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The doll I used for reference in this piece, was hand painted by my Grand Aunt Della, back in the 1980s.  The dolls I use have either been passed down to me from family or acquired at thrift stores.  I had no idea it would be so difficult to find small, all porcelain dolls at the thrift store, but I have been looking for over a year and have only found three that will work.  The most recent find is a beauty with dark curls.  She will definitely turn up in a painting soon.

 

 

Although this is the third painting in the Terrarium series, it is the first to showcase the doll side of the equation.  I wanted this piece to really have a presence, so I stretched a 34" x 46" canvas and started by basically sketching the reference photo and blocking in a layer of color. 

 

 

Next, I add some values and the background pattern. 

 

 

Here I added a yellow/green glaze to spice things up.

 

 

The vessel was originally sitting on a table with squares that would become postage stamps underneath as a symbol of disconnected communication, and thought it would represent the loneliness I wanted to capture in this piece.  The basic idea was to show that this neglected child was so alone that he befriended a beetle.

 

 

All of the doll paintings will have an insect companion. Personally, I find insects to be fascinating creatures and I have used their images in numerous paintings.  Sure, I get freaked-out by the occasional spider, but I try to appreciate and respect their life and their contribution to this planet’s ecosystem.  Insects are often treated as unwanted pests and instantly exterminated. The dolls represent the neglected and abused children, and although they are not “exterminated,” they are often treated as lesser beings. 

 

 

I wanted the outside to be very lush and garden-like to contrast the interior’s desert-like climate.

 

 

I used the photo reference only as a starting point for the pattern.  In the painting, I added blue, viney worm creatures to add movement and variation to the repetitive pattern.  Even the little boy gets a pattern of yellow flowers, because I wanted every surface to be visually energized.

 

 

I have added another yellow glaze on the background. The colors had been getting a bit garish, and I wanted to unify them a little more.  I also changed my mind on the table/stamp concept and went with a water garden instead.

 

 

I started playing with pattern on the glass, which was tricky, but something I want to continue to play with in other pieces. You will see there is a huge jump between this image and the next.  Sometimes I get really into the piece and too distracted to document.  One of the major changes you will notice is the face.  I had been looking at the original doll, and brought that sorrowful look to this guy, but it just wasn’t right.  At this point, my husband noted that he didn’t feel sorry for this creature and asked if that was my intention with this painting.  It was, so that vacant stare had to be replaced with more personality and life. The final face perfectly captures the combination of sweetness and loneliness with a hint of madness.  Well, that is what I see.  Picture Ren’s voice (from Ren and Stimpy)…”Would you like to meet my best friend?”

 

So, at this point I had called the piece done…but the size of the piece seemed to call for something more grand and less static/repetitive.  If you ask my Mother-in-Law, I should have stopped here and let it be, but I just couldn’t.  Many people ask me how I know when a piece is done?  That is a tough question for me to answer, because it is more about instincts than logic.  When I look at a piece and I get lost in the beauty of the color, the flow of the lines and the story presented by the characters, I know it is done.  When I am distracted by nagging conceptual questions, composition issues or unfinished edges, I need to do more work. 

 

 

So I risked a lot by bringing the plants in the foreground.  If they failed, I would have a mess and possibly a ruined painting on my hands.  No pressure there! Why do I do this to myself?

 

 

The floating pods at the bottom seemed odd to me.  Were they attached to the bottom of the pond or had they fallen from a tree?  I decided I liked the tree concept for the pods, but once I got to this point in the painting, I hated them.  They were static and dull.  Oh, crap!

 

 

My thought was to encase them in a yellow blossom.  Double crap!  On the upper right you can see the start of the “Boo-Boo Berries” which became the solution to the pod problem or the cover-up for my “boo-boo.”  As you can see in this shot, one of my cats is critiquing the painting…he gives really harsh crits.

 

So at this point, I was so concerned that I wouldn’t finish the painting in time for the Indianapolis show, that I completely forgot to take any additional progression shots. In the final piece, you can see I changed the berries in the water and added a reflecting pattern.  Now the vessel is surrounded by the garden instead of placed in front of it, and I am quite pleased with the final results.

 

View the finished piece My Best Friend Signed “Kollar”

 

 

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The second painting in the Terrarium Series, measuring 24” x 34”, was inspired by Olivia’s sister, Sophia.

 

 

A quick sketch for placement.  My original thought for this piece was to show a young girl that was perhaps too sheltered and protected and had almost outgrown her space.  I wanted the tree to echo this idea with cramped roots and large branches.

 

 

Originally, I thought she might be standing in the jar, buried to her waist in the dirt.  Then I realized that that seemed kinda gloomy, plus there wasn’t enough space, so I brought her legs out.  In general, there are two basic themes to the Terrariums pieces: human children in pleasant environments surrounded by negative environmental issues and doll children in unpleasant situations surrounded by beauty. 

 

 

Blocking in some color.  I tend to start with the darker medium hue colors and build the lighter and darker colors from there. I wanted this piece to be a completely different palette from the first piece, “Blind Faith”.

 

 

My first thought for the clouds was to make them white and wispy.  I knew I wanted the tree to work as a lid, but I didn’t know what shape I wanted, so I just started adding bunches of leaves.

 

 

I liked the idea of playing with pattern in the form of cast shadows on her skin and the tree, but I wasn’t sure how to make this work. At this point it just feels blotchy.

 

 

Bringing the pinks over the blue base in the sky is a nice way to make some variations of color that bounce between blue, pink and purple. The pink blobs inside the container were going to be lollypops.  I kinda liked the idea of filling the jar with candy to echo the sugar sweet paint palette that was developing in the sky.

 

 

Layering up the leaves, still debating on the shape of the tree.  The arched shape seemed to make sense, but... Changed my mind on the shadows on her skin, at least for now.  It is easier to see the cocoon shape hanging from the tree.  In the past, I have worked a lot with insect imagery and thought the cocoon might be a useful metaphor in this piece, but changed my mind.  You will notice that only the doll terrariums have insects.  I will talk more about that once I analyzed the next piece.

 

 

Candy canes and sugar drops started and I brought more personality to the figure.  I also didn’t like the blah grass and thought a ring of rocks around the base would help convey the idea that she is trapped.

 

 

Some really nasty patterns added to the rocks.  I think it was somewhere around this phase that I was starting to freak out that this piece was getting out of control.  The elements were not working.

 

 

At this point, I also realized that the piece needed more depth and decided to bring some of the branches in front of the jar.  I thought maybe it was the grass that was messing things up since it was supposed to be unpleasant outside of the jar, so I got rid of it and changed the pattern on the rocks.  I also wanted to add something weaving in and out of the tree limbs to add some motion.

 

 

I am much happier with the rocks now and I realized that the candy was truly the problem.  With all the terrarium pieces, I have debated what should go inside and outside and if it should always be natural elements.  At this point, I am leaning towards sticking to the natural elements, but that may change.   I also added the cool, drooping vines.  I saw something like those a while ago, not sure where, but I liked the shapes they made and the strange pod forms dangling from them.  Don’t worry, the ghastly yellow skin is just the underpainting. 

 

 

As you can see here, I like to use lots of layers when making skin.  I start with darker colors and layer on lighter ones, leaving some of the darker exposed for shadows. The objects in the trees are becoming more snake-like, which I like, but the tree still isn’t quite right.

 

 

More plants inside and I started to bring back the shadows on her skin.  When this piece returns from the Indianapolis Art Center on April 20, 2008, I may add more plan life to the inside of the jar. At least more color.  I also started stippling (using tiny dots) for the moss in the bottom of the jar.

 

 

The piece was getting close to being done, but the heavy, static tree was fighting for attention.  I decided to Bonsai it with some blue.  Ah, much better!

 

 

After the Bonsai surgery, I had to paint new swirls into the sky and unify it with the existing space.  It is hard to tell with the digital image, but the sky has a glaze of Interference Blue paint that gives it a toxic glow.  I love working with interference, metallic and now neon colors.  I want to use them in a way that isn’t crafty or too psychedelic.  In a recent critique, my style of painting was dubbed Psychedelic Art Nouveau, or as I have begun to called it, Nouveaudelia. 

 

At some point, I renamed this piece from “Growth” to it’s existing title, because of the fume-like clouds.  Now it seems like more of a commentary on toxic air and airborne disease.  By bringing some of the swirls from the background into the tree, I unified the background and foreground and added depth.  The snake forms are still in the tree, but they are very subtle.  I want to keep pushing the balance between the realistic objects and the decorative elements.  I think this piece works really well to accomplish that task.

 

View the finished piece Contained. Signed “Kollar.”