New Abstract Painting : Flightpath

"Flightpath 2", 9x9" mixed media on paper. Flightpath 1 still needs a bit of work, so I'll post that next week. 

Working with the birds these last few weeks has gotten me thinking about what I'm really looking at and trying to portray with these little pieces. It's not so much the birds as it is the way they move about... trying to draw something while it's in motion has alway been interesting to me, but this is the first time I've actually gone about trying to do it.

There are other things that move in interesting ways... as was very evident while watching the coverage of the recent Pan-Am games that were held in Toronto over the past few weeks. What sparked my interest most... the divers. I always love watching the divers. Every Olympics, no matter how busy, that's the event I make time to watch. Well, summer olympics anyway. In the winter it's the ski jumpers. I like other events, but those ones really grab my attention. I know that I'm going to have to do something related to the athletes at some point, but at the moment, my attention is drawn back to my garden....

Not exactly beautiful....

We've been doing some maintenance back there over the last few weeks. I have a couple large flower beds, but they don't really get much sun. So while I have quite a few large, healthy peony plants, I don't get a whole lot of flowers. This year I had two. Last year there was only one. When my husband told me he wanted to put a shed right where the peonies are, I figured I would just move them to a sunnier spot. They might not live, but you never know. So while trying to figure out the best location, I discovered that the weird looking, greyish mauve flowers I have in my sunny spot is milkweed. I was originally thinking I would pull it out, because it doesn't seem to fit where it is. But when I saw that I had monarch butterflies back there...  repeatedly... I made a point of looking up the plant. OK, so that has to stay. But I can put in more, or a different type, and intersperse it with the peonies, and that should work ok. And the butterflies... oh my. During the couple hours I was back there I saw 4. So beautiful. While I thought about getting a photo, what I actually went to fetch was my sketchbook.

I've done two small pieces so far based on my drawings... well, one is not quite finished, so that one will go up next week. They are small, only 9x9", so they go together somewhat quickly. I've been working on a large one based on my bird paintings, but that one will have to go on hold for a couple weeks while I work on a commission piece. These little ones I can fit in between... those times when I'm not quite sure where I want to go on the larger one, but don't want to loose my momentum by stopping altogether. I think this movement work is going in an interesting direction...  hahahahaha.

Yeah, I know... I'm not that funny....