Cinnabar Nights of Love a new painting wip. I have a new painting in progress, actually two because I consider them a set. I also am thinking I will want to explore this type of painting further and am leaving room for a series with these being the beginning.
I knew that I wanted a red background but other than that I didn’t know where this was going. As I painted the red and yellow, I thought I’d carve in some texture with what I figured would be tall background vegetation. I was thinking abstract at this point.
Next I added decided to add some color with dark blue by coloring in my leaves. That led to turquoise drippings and then I wanted to add more depth and tropical feel with palms. I love plants and painting them felt right. I wasn’t sure what was next but I started to tone it all down a little bit with what I’ll call grunging it up. I added shadowy blues and greens.
I felt at this point it was looking exotic like I was wanting, I wanted to add some life to it with some birds. I love cranes and think they look exotic so I began to look for reference photos and discovered the Sarus Crane. They are in India, southeast Asia, Australia and the Philippines. I knew immediately that was what I wanted. I researched the Sarus Crane and discovered they are the tallest flying bird, at almost 6 feet – which makes them pretty incredible to me.
In India they are considered symbols of marital fidelity, believed to mate for life and pine the loss of their mates even to the point of starving to death. With this being Valentine’s Day weekend, I thought this was a sign that I was choosing the right focal point. I think I love these birds! Unfortunately, their numbers have greatly declined and are on the threatened species list according to Wikipedia.
I painted them in and they are just what I was needing.
This set is still a work in progress, I have a few more ideas for additions to the paintings but not too much. The more I look at them, the happier I am with them. I’d love to know what your thoughts are on the sizes I’m working on. These are 8″x8″. I can see them on a wall on top of one another or side by side. I plan to frame them I think before I put them up for sale. Do you like the squares? I do but am finding the framing options are a little harder to find readymade.
I hope you have had a romantic Valentine’s Day… I got a very pretty and sweet card from my honey and son made me a card which I always treasure. What did you do? Anything special?
Ikea is your best bet for square frames and I do like them btw. Instagram is in square format so loads of people are thinking like that. Don’t get me started on the awesomeness of Sandhill cranes!
Thanks Gail, I never thought about Ikea. That’s a great idea. You are right about Instagram, I’m using it as well. I love all those cranes, they are so interesting! Thanks for stopping by to comment.
I love your paintings, this set especially. I paint too, but have never thought about selling anything until now. What do you paint on? I was thinking canvas board would not be a good idea (for framing then shipping). Any tips you could give me would be appreciated!
Hi Khaula!(You’ll have to help me pronounce that) Thank you for your compliments 🙂 It’s always so nice to meet another artist and blogger. How did you find me?
I have been selling my art really all my life here and there, but as an official business these past 2 years. I actually find that painting on board is the easiest to ship. There are special frames (sometimes referred to as cradle frames) that accommodate board, usually sold in art stores but sometimes you can find them in craft stores like Hobby Lobby. Of course online you can anything (literally!). But you’ll also find a lot of just your normal run of the mill frames work. With acrylic, you don’t want to use the glass, so by the time you remove that according to thickness of your board it might just fit.
With pastels though, you want to make sure it’s protected with glass. Oil pastels (I peeked at your blog) I’m not as familiar with, but I have heard about regular pastels, because they are so “dusty” to not use plexiglass because of the static issue. I haven’t framed any of my pastels yet, so I can’t say from experience.
I hope this helps some, feel free to ask me more 🙂 By the way, it looks like you have a natural talent for art, I love the clouds painting you did. You should invest in your own art supplies 😉
Have a great day!
Jaime
Wow thanks for answering all my questions Jaime, hope you don’t mind if I bombard you again sometime 🙂
And thanks for visiting as well.
You’re welcome Khaula. No, I don’t mind a bit. Ask away 🙂