On the Rocks

"On the Rocks" 11x14 Oil on Canvas

I was going to catch up on posting and put up one of my projects, but I got too excited about this painting.  It is literally still wet on the easel, and I just turned in the photos for class.  At the beginning, I was having a really difficult time with this painting.  Often, art work goes through an ugly stage, but if you persevere and just trust yourself, it will have an "ah-ha!" moment when it starts to come to life.  You just have to continue to see the vision in your head and fight through the awkward teenage years.

We had two solid days of rain, and for the life of me, I just couldn't get into this one.  I mean, there aren't ANY blues or greens in this paintings.  No Shelby colors.  Ha!  So I brought the foreground and background fabric to 90% finished, and I was looking at the 3 big objects, which were pretty much just blocked in.  I decided to tackle the glass with the ice cubes.  Ice cubes, and three glass objects, what in the world was I thinking, torturing myself?  Halfway through the glass and cubes, I almost scrapped it, but all of a sudden, I got the colors to start glowing.  I was able to make the ice look like ice.  The ambers started popping and swirling.  That was the ah-ha! moment, and from there on, I knew I would take the challenge.

Not to say there weren't a few more awkward moments, as can be seen from the picture below.  The middle bottle kept trying to fall forward, but with some insight from my classmates, I was able to straighten it out and get it back on track.

So lesson to those of you toiling away, just wait it out, the teenage years pass. :)

Oh, and to my family of Bourbon drinkers, Jack was the only thing in my liquor cabinet.  Next time anyone comes through duty free, feel free to bring some Maker's or Evan... and to Mark, yes, I know I put Jack and a very nice bottle of 8 yr. old Scotch in the same paintings... I apologize to any desecration I may have committed...