Today, I’m revisiting paintings and am talking about some of my favorite ones from 2012 and since I’ve been so busy with projects, my postings here on my blog have suffered, but I’m working and that is good! I’m just going to take the time and do this, so let’s get started.
Raven Festival is one of my favorite paintings from 2012. It was a request from my Facebook page. I had simply asked on my page what some thought I ought to paint next and this suggestion struck a chord with me.
I have always had a love of crows and ravens. They just have such personality and old souls. My mother always told me that my great-grandmother who was part Cherokee Indian from Tennessee had a pet crow and taught it to talk. His name was Timmy. I wish there were a photo of him and her, but I have very few photos of my great grandmother. I have read up on them and found they are very intelligent birds.
On to the painting!
Revisiting paintings is beneficial for me because it shows me my process and that gives me ideas for news ways of painting. I think what if did it this way next time? That leads to new and exciting ideas.
Painting this raven brought me joy because I had such fun with the process. Immediately knowing how I wanted it to look, I only needed to figure out how to get that idea on canvas. Starting out with a pencil. I first made a light sketch on canvas. Next I cut a mask out around the raven. Knowing I wanted a wild background with almost graffiti like carnival marks I came up with an idea. By watering down my paint and then blowing the paint around, I got the effect I wanted.
I painted some leaves on rather abstractly and used resist to get the depth in the many colors I used for the background. It feels so satisfying for me to peel back those layers of resist and then add more paint… a very creative gratification. Finally, I painted the raven in all his glory.
See my process below.
By the way, this painting is for sale. The original is 12″x12″ on canvas for $200. You can purchase it here. Prints are available.
See more paintings and prints of my ravens and crows here.
So it’s a happy accident that the Ravens are in the Superbowl this Sunday. I’ll be rooting for them if for no other reason than this painting! Go Baltimore!
I’m revisiting paintings again on another painting from 2012 and talk about it more soon. If you haven’t visited it yet, I’d love to have you over on my Facebook Fan Page… please like it at http://www.facebook.com/JaimeHaneyArtist
UPDATE:
This painting is sold and has a wonderful new home in Henderson, Kentucky.
Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page in the menu at the top. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started creating more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is mystery.
If you would like to keep up with what I’m doing, join my email list. About once a month I send out a letter that gives you invitations for shows, birthday greeting, sneak peeks at new work and more. I’d love for you to add your email to my Friends and Collectors list!
I LOVE the combo of abstract and reality 🙂
Two different ways and feelings when painting, right?!?!
Awesome post, awesome Art 🙂
Have a lovely day, cheers, T. 🙂
RIGHT! The combination of altered reality is something I really enjoyed and want to explore further. So glad to hear your opinion and wonderful comments, thank you T!
This is gorgeous! I have a fondness for ravens and crows, too. I especially love that story about Timmy…what a neat story you get to share with people!
I love to share my little “neat stories”, reminds me of Mom, who I miss so much. I would have her tell me some stories over and over. Thank you Cameron on sharing your sweet comments! I have many more plans of ravens and crows in my upcoming paintings. Maybe a series 🙂 I’m so excited about your comment!
This is one of my favorites- thanks so much for taking us along for it’s journey!
xx
Stephanie
Thank you Stephanie, it was a favorite of quite a few people! I have plans for more raven and crow paintings.