the gallery. . . in the garbage

Every time I go home to my parents' house in Illinois, I try to go through the closets, attic, basement to see what remnants of youth might still be lingering unbidden. With that wonderful walk-up attic, there is plenty of storage, so my parents have been generous about letting me and my sisters hang on to things. . . but they are also thrilled when we clean things out. Usually they have urged me to take whatever childhood things I would like for our family, so on previous visits I brought home vintage Fisher Price toys (the castle! the A-frame! the yacht!) and books (The Fourteen Bears Summer and Winter! Gyo Fugikawa's Busy Day!).

This time I finally dug out the four huge paintings I made for a watercolor class my sophmore year of college. I took pics, and then folded them and trashed them. I don't regret finally throwing them away, since they are not all that great. But each of them had one feature I thought I did well, for my first painting class. And since I have not painted since then, getting them out to look every few years when I would visit home and admiring that one touch of artistic value in each made me feel a sense of accomplishment. Of course secretly I wish I was a really good artist. I am not, but have my moments in which I can pretend.

And since this is my blog, I'll finally get that exhibit of which I have always dreamed. ; )

watercolor lends itself so well to imitating stained glass! I was astounded to find a matte board of the exact same shade as in my painting, but in retrospect should have gone with basic black--the resulting color effect is too grandma, too motel art. Still, for my very first watercolor painting ever, made up in my own mind, not bad.

This painting is of an image I tore out of a woman's fashion magazine, like Vogue. I thought it looked cool, and I was actually proud of the way I was able to reproduce the sheen of the hosiery. My instructor was not as impressed.

My roommate took a pic of my back and I used that as the model. I tried to use colored pencil along with the watercolor, to give an "old" texture to the skin and hair, but it did not turn out great. I liked how the hair turned out, though.



my final piece, which earned me an "A." It looks much better in person. The instructor praised me for my use of gesso (can be used to thicken the paint and give texture and depth) in this work, but, actually I just painted the whole thing using watercolor paint straight out of the tube.