Ribbon Town

Ribbon Town  Acrylic on Canvas 30" x 40" 76cm x 101cm

You:  Wow Shells, you finally finished your painting, it looks great.

Shells:  Thanks, I think I'm finished - was thinking about doing a few more finer details, decorating it but I think I will leave it as it is...

You: So this is the painting you were asking for Help!!! with last week??  What changes have you made?

Shells:  Here's the 'original' painting, which I was never happy so I never varnished it but I did hang it and titled it Ribbons. That is why this is called Ribbon Town.   I started painting it not long after I did the Flora Bowley Painting Workshop in March and I was painting it intuitively.

Then I received my Golden paints from the States so I added some more to the painting:

And it still wasn't working for me so on Monday morning at my art group I blocked out a lot of the painting:

and during the week I painted in an ash pink background that didn't work but you can still see in some parts, I also changed the red to an orange-red and made most of the ovals dome shapes and sort of turned it into another one of my funky towns...

You:  Who were your major inspirations for this painting?

Shells:  Flora Bowley and Rosetta Santuci.  Some people have compared my house paintings to Hundertwasser's style but I have not done much research into him or his paintings.

You:  This painting doesn't remind me of Flora's work.

Shells:  Thank you.  I'm having a real mind battle at the moment with this as my work doesn't look like Flora's and therefore I feel as though I failed her workshop, not that there was a pass or a fail but on the other hand I should be working to develop my own style so it's actually good that it's not like Flora's.  I'm very controlled and need to loosen up a bit.

You:  Who is Rosetta Santucci?

Shells:  She's an Australian artist who's painting was recently shown on an Aust TV series "Offspring" above the main characters bed - and I loved it - she works with colour and layers too.  Check out the link.

You:  What are your favourite parts of this painting?

Shells:  I actually like the fact that the 'houses' are not all in a straight line, a little bit wonky, which to me shows the intuitiveness and unplanning of the painting - how it just happened.  Here are some of my favourite sections...

The top right hand section which I could never paint over..

And these 'haunted houses'...

You:  You said earlier this week that you were feeling overwhelmed, how are you feeling now?

Shells: Better, I caught up on a few chores that I had to do at home and got some painting done.  I had a headache most of the week and was feeling tired and achey and a little down.  My kids used up all our internet allowance so now the speed has slowed down and I'm unable to upload pics so right now I'm at my BFF's house using their internet - love you Sandra - she's a really good artist but it's not her passion.

You:  What will you be working on next? 

Shells:  I have to finish my butterfly window and my mini wooden houses and my butterfly girl too.

You:  Thanks for sharing that with us.

Shells: Thank you and have a great weekend.  Take care and stay safe.