Wednesday, July 23, 2008

killing rats in the studio wall

OK. I can deal with heat, cold, mosquitoes and old age but I can not deal with #%&**%##** RATS.
They are in my studio wall right next to the painting I'm working on. I try to ignore them....it is impossible. So I got out my big rubber mallet and harassed them by banging on the wall.

Never mind.......it sounds like a party in there !!

So I've called a nice sounding pest guy and he is coming out to see what we can do. I had white rats and black and white rats as pets when I was a kid and I loved them. However a couple of years ago, I saw 8-10 big big rats running along our trellis and jumping into the plum tree. That did it.
We had them in our attic once and it was a misery but they all left feet first. I don't believe in killing any thing.........except rats.

So the pest guy is coming tomorrow and I've told him I will stay out of the studio....just DO something. Cheers.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

the painter's progress

Amazing. I actually got quite far with this painting in just a couple of days. Not the fleetness of brush of youth, but right back in it. After a lot of smaller paintings, I had trepidations about this larger one. It is about 1/4 done so I am posting a few pictures of the painter's progress.

Monday, July 21, 2008

creaking bones, pitiful muscles

I am putting together stretchers and stretching canvas. Nothing to remark on except that for the past 2 or 3 years I have been working relatively small. Easel work. Now I'm going back to the 60" x 50" size. Unless someone else builds them for me, I think my 76" x 84" canvases are in the past.

Crikey, you know you are getting old when you can't heft the heft you hefted before. My old stretchers are especially heavy. Sometimes stripping off an old not so successful painting and putting on new canvas is an easier way to go. Except then.......you have to deal with millions of old stubborn staples on the old painting.

But there is no saying "aw, forget it". There are some ideas that need more space. So, now I work a while til my back is screaming at me and then sit for a bit. Then jump back up and sneak in a little more work before my back notices.

Another solution would be to work unstretched....which is do-able with acrylic (now that I'm using the damn stuff). There are too many ideas galloping in my head not to go big again.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

wicked acrylic in progress

This is a brave week for me art wise. Braving the slinging of the acrylic paint and leaving oil behind. I have to admit that the acrylic is fighting me. We struggle, brush and canvas, to put on there what used to flow and now jerks.

I mean, I know there are actual serious problems out there and even here in this abode. But this is my thrashing struggle of the moment.

I am posting on flickr.com a group of in progress paintings, bravely showing the pitiful skeleton and underwear of the painting as it goes. It is not finished as of this date. I will put up a few more when it is. And I offer a few here. Alas.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

books leaning longingly

The doldrums of heat. Makes me want to be right here with my computer clutched to my bosom, so to speak. Don't feel like creating today. Feel like blah. However, the books need attending.

What I mean to say is that the piles of books leaning longingly toward the floor need attending. Novels to read, novels to share, novels to give away....novels I thought I would like and don't. And books about Manhattan in its birth, San Francisco in its resurrection, people with ravens in the Maine woods, Swedish immigrants, pioneer journals, and poetry.

I could be a bookstore. There are maps of the trek of early people across Europe, books about beading (not going to happen), art books, gardening books, and inexplicably books on cooking.

It is almost impossible for me to discard a book. The room is so friendly with them holding up the lamp or nuzzling at your feet. I could go to the library, but they won't let me in at one am to read what Katherine Anne Porter said to Carson McCuller when she wouldn't get off the floor.

The coldest and the hottest days are for reading.


swamp, 55" x 29"

in progress

flying fish, 55" x 29"

eye with a view

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About Me

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I am living and painting in the little town of Houston. A far way from my San Francisco beginnings. I paint what I see of the human condition, be it human, animal or object. The glimmer of humor, pathos, and spirit in so much of what I see is the basis of what I paint.

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All content here is under copyright: Gail Siptak. Please ask for permission if you wish to use them. Thanks.

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