It's Saturday Again. How Did That Happen???

It's Saturday, the last one in October, year 2018, and I am here in my little flat, taking it easy. It is day 2 of the monthly cauchmar and so, you know how that goes. I just thank god it was classy enough to come on the weekend. These days, when it comes, I can't go to work because I am completely unable to manage all the moving parts. I mean, all bets are off, it's just better if I stay home and let nature do its thing. Know what I mean? TMI? Sorry….;:)

So where am I with this experience? I have been painting but not as much as I would like. For several reasons. One is the space issue. It is a wet blanket. I have lots of ideas but I can't bring all those canvases into the flat because I cannot circumnavigate the space when there are so many things in it and I know myself. At first, it would be cute and funny but after, not so funny and I will start to just throw stuff through the window. Cause I gotta stay sane and clear headed….

But I have been working on a few things including a peniche on the Seine and this other one that is supposed to be a sunset hitting the Musée D'Orsay in Paris.  Both are fails; I know. The sunset is particularly a spectacular failure but the good thing is, neither is finished and I can keep tinkering with them till I get them right. It could take years, of course.

What else? Well, I arranged all my white tea cups and put them on top of my white armoire and I just think they are so cute!! Don't you agree?

I love decorating and decor and arranging my furniture and re-arranging my furniture. I think I have a good eye for this sort of stuff.  Which is why painting probably comes so easy to me. Not that I am saying I have any technique - especially from an academic standpoint. I don't have any academic technique/ But I do love it and I do think I am very creative with things like paint and decorative objects.

Well, that is all for now. I must go. And eat lunch. Which I just finished. Wish me bon appetit… and I wish you the same, of course…

Look What I've Done With the Sketch of the Bust!

So, I "painted" (it is a hot mess) the sketch of the busty woman I did the other day and I think it looks a little bit pornographic - which, believe it or not, was not my intention. Which makes me giggle, a little bit. I mean, what in the name of god do I think I am doing??? Then I blasted it onto my Instagram page, which I created a few days ago and I can only hope they don't boot me off the platform completely.
https://www.instagram.com/marionlifestyle/

So, on another note, I spent the afternoon walking around Paris and taking photographs of scenes I have come to take for granted, but which I might incorporate into future paintings. I stopped into a few galleries including Mizen Fine Art Gallery on Quai Des Grands Augustin. I saw the most amazing works on display and it made me think, OMG, am I nuts to think I could ever sell my art? When you have stuff like that out there?

But yea, I walked around Paris for hours and took a whole bunch of photos of things utterly mundane that I want to use in my work. Here are a few of them (I have also blasted these out to Instagram as well.)

I am itching to start a new painting based on these photos the problem is that there is no place to hang it so that it can dry without the paper curling at the edge. I have no wall space left.

Fall Closet

So, it's Labor Day weekend.  I decided to take out my fall clothes, to get ready for the new season. I think my entire wardrobe needs a makeover but I am certainly not in a position to do massive Zara hauls like these YouTube bloggers. Plus, I don't have space for more clothes in this studio with all these paintings. It is already overwhelming. But I would love to get a pair of ballet flats and a light black trench coat….

I spoke too soon. I am in the middle of a new painting! Help!  I had some left over paint from one painting and I did not want to toss it so I began another. It was a kind of burgundy color that I used to spruce up my Marie Antoinette portrait.

It was fun because from that, I see an interesting abstract evolving…

.I think I will call it
The Refugees

What do you think?

Sketching is the hardest thing for me to do

So as I continue my journey into the world of painting (what a deep, vivid, unpredictable place it is!) I find that I have a problem with sketching and drawing what I see. I always think something is easy when I look at it but bringing it out of my head onto the page is absolute murder. I did take a couple of art classes in my time, one in New York (I forgot the name of the place, I think it was up on the Upper West Side but it is going back decades and I am an old gal now) and the other in Paris at a museum in the Latin Quarter that houses Medieval art. I had the same issue at both places. I felt unwelcomed, as if the other people thought I did not belong there. It could all have been in my head. But it was the feeling I got, a cold shaft. So I quit both times before I really learned how to draw. The only thing I remember is the idea that shading is important. But how to do it?

So these are  my sketches of a nude I want to paint. It took me forever to get something that resembles a nose on this thing (the first one). I am actually quite proud of it because it looks  something like a person. Which, to my eyes, is a little bit of a miraculous thing. This one here is still evolving.

Oh, by the way yesterday I called my stuff a word and I want to take it back. I don't believe in myself enough. I am very self-deprecating, which is better than being full of myself, I guess. But I do take it to another level of unhealthy self-dissing and this needs to stop. I have been to many museums and galleries in my day and I think my stuff is as good as a lot of the things I have seen and not as good as a lot of things I have seen. But that does not make it "shit." At least, I should leave these put downs to the viewer and I should believe in my own stuff so I want to take back what I said yesterday about my stuff, but not what I said about God disdaining women. Because I really believe that he does on a very, very real level.

Saturday Morning

It's Saturday and I woke up to a menstrual deluge that just renders me incapacitated. Why did God do this? God is a man. God is a man who hates and disdains women. He just has no respect and no regard for. He just felt like, you know what, I created a world full of men and they are amazing. They can build and fight and break wind and have a good time and it's perfect. But I think they need a little distraction so I am going to give them a little creature to play with but this creature, this thing, I already can't stand her. I hate her, actually. So I'm going to make her bleed for days and days, constantly, for years and years.  This will give man a break from all her wants and needs and distractions and give him time to do the important stuff. The man stuff….

This is is what I think God was thinking when he created woman. Cause how else do you explain this?

I had my chicorée. I am having it, actually. I like it better than coffee. But when it's time to work, only coffee does the trick. Chicorée does not give me the same kind of kick that coffee does. Or maybe I just need to supplement with iron. I don't know.

This piece is in progress as is everything else in my studio. (Doesn't that sound pretentious? "My studio"? As if I have a bloody studio or something. I do have a studio but it is not an art studio, it is where I live and I fill it up with all this MATERIAL I call abstract art. Which, I guess, is not fair to real artists who paint abstract art work, right?)

Jesus. My tongue. Especially at certain times. Anyways. So this piece is in progress. But it is almost finished.

It is acrylic.
50 cm by 55 cm

Can be yours for a modestly hefty sum. Contact me if you want it.