in progress: O Fortuna: The One Who Looks at the Mirror of Time

as expected, i rejected the former version and started another one, more carefully rendered. more focus on the pencil work. i think i like this version best.

finally... almost there...

the muses are temperamental and like to play. they deny you inspiration for days, weeks, even months, and when they finally decide to grant you with their grace, they do things like depriving you from your sleep, for instance. that's no fun when you don't have to luxury to stay in bed until late in the morning.

but after a lot of blood, sweat and tears (and a lot of wasted paint) i suspect i finally found what i wanted for "O Fortuna".










this is called "The One Who Looks at the Mirror of Time". the pieces would initially have more simple, determining names, like "The Trickster", "The Temptress", since the idea is to create something like tarot cards. but the miscellaneous of colors is asking for more poetry, and i obey.

this unrest

Revelation [work in progress]
(to be aborted, or improved maybe... who knows...)

last week i was organizing my pieces in year of completion, in order to put on the new website, and noticed how awfully prolific i was last year. 2010 has not been the same. maybe because of some personal problems, which has been put me away for the easel and made me spend time concerned with practical matters; maybe because of this unrest inside me that is continuously pushing me toward new ways to express myself.

in the last months i've been trying to pursue a style that is at the same time loose and rendered. i've been also wanted to dive into a more intuitive, less planned and left-brain oriented type of painting, which, for me, is easier to achieve when i start working with an underpainting composed of careless layers of paint and loose brush strokes; the shapes and colors generated by the underpainting will pretty much define the feel and the general subject of the painting. also, this method most of the times fixes the problem of the backgrounds - i never know what to do with backgrounds. i am also seeking to decrease the excess of ornamental abstracts and bring the focus more to the overall symbolism of the painting and the body -- an ancient intention that i have never been able to put into practice efficiently.

the wip above is a painting i've been preparing in the last days for the Nude show, in Lexington KY. deadline is super tight and i don't know if i will be able to make it. it plays with the concept of inner nudity - heart and soul - rather than literal body nudity. i like it immensely how the figure is coming out. however, the background is totally killing me because it is pretty much 50% of the canvas area (the photo shows only the center.) i'd better find a convincing solution until Thursday!

i need to allow me a little bit of serenity. and more hours spent in the sketchbook drawing loosely and without commitment with results, this big perpetrator of artistic blocks.

website makeover

take a look: patricia-ariel.com

shop will be implemented as soon as i have the time, and it will be working on the very website. i will continue working with Ecrater though, which is a pretty reliable service.

around here, much activity and experimentations.

The Shape-shifter (temporary title) in progress.

Houston, we have a problem...

can't see my blog!


the problem was the Twitter gadget, that for some reason was sweeping my blog away every time it got loaded. gadget off, blog back.