This weekend, I completely abandoned my seed beads. The weather was beautiful and I wanted to go see the Tall Ships, but I also wanted to work on my painting.
Last night, I worked on my beaded White House painting for the entire night! I had reached a point where I sort of liked what I was doing, so I just kept painting... After a little while longer, I ended up hating my canvas and everything I painted! I am not a painter - why must I paint at all, I thought. Why can't I just let beadwork be! Frustrated & discouraged, I cleaned up my paint brushes and went to sleep.
Five hours later, I woke up and started painting again. This time, I reached for a different brush, and ended up re-painting over the entire oval canvas! Three hours later, I took a step back and really looked at my work.
Semi-beaded White House relief painting. 24" x 36". Bead embroidery mounted on an oval stretched canvas. Work in progress...
That was when I realized that I choose to paint not because it is easy, but because it is hard...
16 comments:
love the White House painting! so cool!
Tall ships! I read a book that talked about "beautiful white-winged ships" -- I always think about that line when I see them.
And thanks for the shout-out in preparation for Apollo. I'm so excited for the 20th! Have you seen http://wechoosethemoon.org/ ?? Very cool!
Duh! We as women generally choose the hard way. After all we are women.
I think you choose to paint because you can even if it is hard. And finally it comes out right. I love a nice square brush for texture.
Very neat multi-media painting there! Love it!
Ah brillianr!
Thanks everyone!
And, thanks for that link, Barbara. That IS cool! And, you are right, the last sentence in this post is a modified JFK quote. :D
AWESOME. Just awesome!
Wow! It's looking pretty dreamy and fantastic!
It looks great, like its being viewed through an oval telescope, maybe right into the oval office :-D couldn't resist the pun, Sorry :-} Juliet
Wow! What incredible work you do! With Beads!! I just found your blog. Incredible.
Wow that is incredible. x
Looking good.
I LOVE the way this turned out - I was a tad worried when I first saw the painted background which seemed too flat contrasted against the busyness of the beads - but this is perfect. I think it helps to step away once in awhile.
I admire you for being able to go back and continue working on it! That can be really hard when you get frustrated with a piece :)
The tall ships are beautiful works of art...wow...looks like fun and nice weather too. Love that sun face sail.
Don't you hate when that discouraged feeling comes around. You did the right thing...clean up and go to bed! But the most important thing is that you got up and persisted with iyour painting again and didn't give up...even if you repainted the whole thing! I think besides being hard...it's the challenge to see your vision come to life to your liking. It looks fantastic, Diana! I'm glad that you could appreciate your painting with fresh eyes... ~Lisa
I love the multimedia of this painting, and I LOVE that you use the newspaper articles for the clouds. Adds a deeper meaning to the painting---those subjects are definitely just a small selection of the things looming over the White House!!! So deep!
And because it's hard---that's why I write (when I manage to!). Because it's not EASY to shape the words and thoughts---but it's OH SO MUCH FUN and SO GRATIFYING!!!!!
Post a Comment