Day 54

Spiritual Light

(8x10", Oil) Not For Sale

I discovered a new author - Victoria Laurie - two weeks ago. Her books are about a psychic who reluctantly gets involved with murder investigations. I found these books compelling, and also that they punched my own intuitive buttons on several levels. I sat down and wrote an extensive review of the aforementioned protagonist and each book in turn - which you can read on my Muse du Jour blog at http://musedujour.blogspot.com/ Together with that inspiration, came the fully formed idea for this painting. I nixed trying to paint this image in a multi-session attempt, or in a greater size: I'm having enough trouble starting the small one-session paintings I post here. Also, I haven't painted a human figure in a good long while as they are quite demanding to do. I tried last week to start painting this image - on a smaller canvas, as the support I wanted to use wasn't ready - but it wasn't working out, and I scrubbed it out three times. Deciding I wasn't ready to paint it then, and being dog tired, I gave it up till this week. So, with the right sized canvas, and sick of endlessly painting the darn thing in my head, brushstroke by brushstroke, I painted it yesterday. With a migraine...

Still it isn't too bad, in spite of the washed out face - trying to photograph a dark glossy surface is hell.

Palette consisted of a slightly larger array than usual: Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Titanium White, Cadmium Red Light, Permanent Rose, and Cobalt Violet. Brushes were a 1/2" Filbert, a Size 2 Round, a Size 6 Round, a Size 4 Filbert, and a big fluffy blending brush.

Whew, now that's over, now I can get back to painting something else. The universe wasn't going to let me paint any other subjects until I'd gotten this one off my chest.

So, see you tomorrow!
Marianne