Paintings can come in all shapes and sizes, square, rectangle, circle or even trapezoid (have yet to see that one but how cool would that be?!). I worked on two small paintings in the past few months and they were definitely not the usual kind.
The first one was on a random scrap piece of wood I found somewhere. I never seem to remember where I pick up these random pieces but I certainly do enjoy hoarding wood apparently. There were actually identical twin pieces of wood that I originally planned to do some kind of diptych so I white washed them with some gesso. I ended up changing my plan mid way through and using one piece to create a string art PacMan piece for my brother's Christmas gift..which of course I don't think I have any pictures of. So sad. The other twin piece I decided I wanted to paint a Japanese-esque blossom tree with a bit of my own style and taste added in. Ever since I was little, I have always had a fascination of tree roots, so I always seem to have them visible..go ahead and psycho-analyze me..you know you want to.
I like to keep things simple but I was rather proud of how the trunk turned out..until I basically covered it with the blossoms. Ah well. tis art. This was painted actually before the other painting I posted last, the Everlasting one (apparently I was on a tree kick). That's an important fact to know because that means this is the first painting I had done..probably in years. I used to paint quite a bit but then school, busy, lazy etc. You know how it is I'm sure.
But do you want to know the best part about this piece?! The location I put it in. I currently live in an apartment. There is an awkward sliver of wall between the bedroom door and the bathroom door. This piece, which measures 3.5 x 13.25 inches, fits perfectly between the two (you can see parts of the two door frames in right photograph).
Now, I don't know if its human nature or the OCD designer/artist inside of me, but there is something completely satisfying when something fits just perfectly where you want it to go. You know exactly what I'm talking about. When that book just fits on the shelf, when you can perfectly fit your foot between two slats on a fence or when you go to sit between two people and there is just enough space for you and you alone. Ahhhhhh almost like the universe aligned at the one second when you needed it to.
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The other piece that I painted around the same time as this one was on a record (or vinyl depending on how hipster you are feeling today). I picked this one up at a garage sale one day because I thought that color was interesting and unique. Unlike most gray/black records, this one was blue. Sweet, right? I thought it would be a good fit for a night sky painting because then I could use the blue of the vinyl to compliment the sky in the piece I was painting.
This is definitely one of those pieces that looks better from a distance than up close..because up close, it just look like a bunch of white dots on a blue background. From a distance I think you can see the fact more that its a moon with stars. The way I hung this painting (which is in my kitchen btdubs, hence the oven mitts) was with a single thumbtack in the center. This makes it kind of fun because that means I can spin the painting..almost like the moon and stars are rotating as if they would appear in the actual sky (although in real life, we are the ones rotating..not the stars...but you should already know that if you had any experience with astronomy in school).
I might continue painting on records in the future. Buy them at garage sales and paint them. I like that idea. One of the purposes of art after all is to give new life to things that would have none otherwise. =^.^=
