Paintngs in progress

These are the four paintings that I'm busy with at the moment. I am on a mission to complete them but am so distractable with an irritating 'fidget-factor, that I'm finding it really hard to do so. Fortunately, I have friends who I paint with once or twice a week, who know that I have 'ants' and that I battle to focus.
There are three exhibitions in London this year, June, July and September (??) and I haven't even thought about starting them yet. I have to clear my studio first...unclutter my mind!!


COSMOS
Just started this one, a commission which I started on Thursday. I don't often paint flowers so am pretty much feelng out of my depth. My references are a photograph, a metal dustbin belongng to a friend (I kid you not) and the cosmos growing in our garden (which is causing me to run up and down stars all day). This will take a while as I need to create the depth.......as well as a gazillion little stalk-like leaves.


SOMEWHERE IN THE DRAKENSBURG

Started this a while back....a still life which I need to work on as it is flat and incomplete and the spacial is all wrong.






SWARTLAND
A large, space-taking landscape...the first layer. Using pink as the base coat.....hmmmmm








PORTRAIT
Still sloggng away on the Venter family portrait. I'm completely and utterly bored and uninspired with this as it requires no imagination.... but I need to finish it......so I will (even if I start to bleed from my eyeballs!!!) Lots and lots still to do on this one!

Handsome prince or comfortable frog?

We have a resident frog. For the past few months, Molly has been trying to catch and eat it. (We've seen legs sticking out on either side of her mouth on at least three occasions!) Frogs can be highly toxic to dogs...a few years ago, our Retriever, Emma, had to be hospitalized after simply tryng to catch one!


I have (just been cra...d on by our parrot, great!!) rescued it a few times and have taken it to the far end of our one ha property, only to find that it had returned the next day.






It's rediculously tame, although it hides during the day. It's large and copious deposits are proof of its reluctance to leave.

Screaming head

On Ash Wednesday, a two-ton truck slammed into the back of our new car. I have never much cared for 'stuff' but when I saw my husband grab his neck, I pretty much flipped, and jumped out the car with clenched fists, ready to deface the truck-drver's head, dent for dent. Instead, all I managed to do was lambaste his ears with a tirade of very strong and equally unladylike expletives!


I had planned to start another sculpture but didn't plan on the motivation. And brother!!!.....did I get motivated!











Again, not planned, the emotion took over.
















The saying: "It doesn't rain but it pours" suddenly became alive and very pertinent to the Vallance household. We've been subjected to a financial hailstorm for the past two months and this was the last thing that we needed. Saying that however, we discovered that nomatter how bad things seemed....things could always be much worse. My husband and I could have been seriously injured for one.

The result of this accident was that we suddenly realized what we DID have......the important things...like our health, each other and a loving and supportive famly. The car, for me, represented the destructibility and empty transience of material things...and allowed me to visualize my anger. Not at all pretty!