man or fish?

Here's my first finished summer painting, titled "man.or.fish"
Dimensions: 2 feet by 4 feet
acrylic and broken mirror on canvas

This Studio Ain't Big Enough...

I'm working on finishing up my most recent piece (it's a big one), and every time I work on it, I am reminded of how small my bedroom studio at home is! I'm also broke as hell, so I can't afford to rent a nice studio in the nearest city or anything, but I'm making do with what I have for now. Sometimes I feel like it's so hard to get into the zone and just do my thing without worrying over a bunch of things, like spilling paint/paint-y water on the carpet, marking up the walls, and running out of storage space. I also wish I had a way of hanging up my paints on some sort of rack so that I could grab them and organize them a lot more easily. In my dream studio, I will have that and a ginormous table for painting on and I won't ever worry about spilling paint because it won't be a huge deal.

The easel I have is a little unsteady at times, but it does the trick, and I'm so glad I have it. Years ago, when I had only been working on smaller canvases, I wouldn't dream of using an easel because it seemed like holding my wrist at a weird angle to paint wasn't very useful...but I feel like getting used to an easel takes a little work, and it's a very helpful instrument, especially for larger canvases.

I also just realized that I'm blathering on about things that might not be that interesting, but I want you all to know that even when I haven't posted something new in a while, art is on my mind and in my room and always in progress here in LaurenLiz's world. :-)

Working on a New Painting

Currently, I am working on a piece that is titled "Man or Fish" and is another one of the bigger canvases I've ever done. It's definitely a challenge for me to do bigger pieces, if only because I find myself getting way too detailed with the images. Like with this one, I started with a whole conglomeration of stuff and have been trying to whittle it down so that it's not so overwhelming. I like to create pieces that are a little complex so that the viewer sees something new every time he or she looks at it, but sometimes I get carried away. So with this painting, my main focus is to make sure everything ties together in a coherent way, so that it doesn't look like I just threw a bunch of stuff together.

When I post the finished piece, I will give more info about the dimensions, how long it took to finish, and anything else you might want to know. Until then, I hope you are all well, and that snow doesn't fall on New England until at least November or December (but who knows, we might get a blizzard in June, the weather here is crazy!).

Edited Painting

I've gone back to a piece that I did 2 years ago, the biggest canvas I had ever done at that point, and fixed a couple problems that I had been eyeing for about a year now. It didn't feel finished to me, but it is as of today! :-) It's called "Like Eating Glass," which I named after my favorite Bloc Party song. Hope you like it!

(There's a full picture and a couple detail pictures.)

Generations

Finished another painting tonight; it's called "Generations" and is acrylic/mixed media on canvas. My apologies for the poor picture quality, all I have is a digital camera and am far too broke to pay for professional photography. Hope you enjoy it though. The price is $500.

More Examples of My Artwork

1. "Self Portrait 2007," charcoal on paper, 2-1/2' x 3-1/2' (30"x 42")

2. "Kentucky," acrylic on canvas, 3' x 2'

3. ""Our House," acrylic on canvas, 16" x 20"

4. "Zach," pastel on paper, 16" x 19"

Note: These works are NOT for sale, but they serve as a part of my portfolio.