Spur of the Moment Rocket Doodles...

 

"Moon Hopper"

(4x6", Oils on Linen, Framed)    Price: $ 150.00  SOLD

True Rocket Doodles in my creative world are the ones that come from a 'what shall I paint now?' mindset, usually after I've just completed whatever else I've been working on, large or small. And sometimes, inspiration strikes just right and I'll grab a canvas and start drawing elements on it until I get a working concept or story. These latest few paintings are just that: impromptu, off the cuff, spur of the moment tiny works inspired typically by 'colour combinations', shapes, a singular element from something I've just been working on, or even something amorphous from music I've been listening to or such. Sometimes, the magic is just there when you need it. 'Moon Hopper' was inspired by wanting to play with colour and shape, so I just kept adding elements, starting with the 'Saturn'-like planet as the anchor and finishing up with tiny rocket racing away from the space station. All of the random elements work in this tiny painting and I added and added them until it just felt 'balanced' to me. Then I started in with the paint. I had a lot of fun with this one, and the nostalgia style 'space' that I created in the top right hand corner was the basis for another painting, 'Jagged Edges' which I'll talk about in the next post. Meanwhile, here are some of the other paintings that I created for Illuxcon that were literally not designed, but were more of happy accidents...

"The Narrows"

(4x6", Oils on Linen, Framed)  Price: $ 100.00 SOLD

'The Narrows' was inspired by a colour scheme I had in mind and a pretty pale rose gold frame I had lying around my studio. A wavy line, draw a rocket on a favourable angle, put in a few moons using a small circle gauge template and off I went. There is something just so soothing noodling wet paint into pleasing shapes and depths.

 "The In-Between"

(4x4", Oils on Linen, Framed)  Price: $90.00  SOLD

I had a small but bulky mottled brown frame hanging around my studio table for quite some time. I don't remember when I purchased it or where, but it spoke to me on  some level, and I am a sucker for giving odd sized frames a good home and use. Right then, I thought the colour of it would lend itself well to a small painting of Mars or similarly toned painting idea. So, I used a roll of artists tape to make the big planet anchor and and drew in a rough asteroid/moon shape in the lower right. I had fun with doodling this domed station for a few minutes, then it was ready for painting. Everything was roughly noodled with the paint with only loose attention to details of real world, or real space objects. I've painted Mars a few times now and didn't want to lose flow in the creativity process by delineating every little crater and canyon on the red planet. The space station was formed by a lot of tiny dashes and implied detail. After the painting was finished, I held up the frame to it and decided that the frame didn't fully compliment the image itself. It kind of needed to be darker. I shrugged, scrunched up some paper towel and proceeded to dab black paint from my palette onto the frame to darken the inner edges of it, not fully covering the original pretty mottled brown. It worked!!! The darker inner edges made the tiny painting pop. So, after the frame dried, I sprayed it with Kamar Varnish a couple of times and let it sit and dry some more. The frame and painting looked fully cohesive when finally mated. Sometimes, it just pays to play around. Ahem...

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I'll be posting a few more of my 'Designed' Rocket Doodles next time, so stay tuned.
Cheers,

Marianne