MY GRANDSON

I hadn't done anything you could call artistic in a very long time. I crocheted a throw for my daughter for her birthday but nothing else. I just hadn't felt inspired for a long time to do anything artistic. Then something marvelous happened.

My sister discovered a site where there was a recipe for paper mache clay and began to sculpt with it. She sent me an e-mail towards the end of December last year and I was so impressed with the two Santa figures she had sculpted that I had to take the trip down to see them in person. The rest is history. I caught the PMC fever and proceeded to sculpt over 40 figures of which 32 are Santa or other Christmas figures.

I was having a great time of it at first but a couple of months ago I started having problems with my right hand. Being right handed it wasn't a welcome condition and made it hard to sculpt. I kept trying to sculpt anyway but the hand just got worse. I decided to give it a rest to see if it would get better but that didn't do any good. So being me I became depressed.

Now you'd think that since I hadn't done anything artistic in so many years I shouldn't be getting depressed because I couldn't sculpt now. The best I can explain it is I have a tendency to obsess and I become compelled to do things or I'm totally uncomfortable and feel anxious and loose my sense of well being.  I had to find something to distract me, sure there are other things I can do that are just as rewarding, right?

I began trying to find other mediums to work with hoping to find something that is kinder to the hands giving them a change of pace so they might heal. I decided to do something soft so I designed and made and dressed two little teddy bears and although they were somewhat easier on the hands it still wasn't easy.  Then I decided to try painting again. Sure I've painted the PMC figures but that's a lot different than painting on canvas.

So far I have completed three pieces. I showed the silly little haunted house painting with the Jack-o-lantern moon my last post and now I'm going to show you the one I did today of my grandson AJ when he was little. He's 21 now so this was awhile ago.

The picture I painted this from says to gramma Maddy on the back in AJ's handwriting. It was a school photo. He's wearing a tie dyed shirt so I decided to give the background a mottled appearance instead of a solid one like in the school photo. I put a lot of yellow in it because to me yellow is a happy color and the photo always makes me smile. If you think I exaggerated the eyes, think again. That little kid had the biggest bluest eyes I've ever seen. 

I used oils for all the portraits I painted in my early years but now I'm going to see how I do with acrylics since I have so many of them. It's a whole different process and I've found it's harder to blend and shade and the paint sets too quickly for my tastes but I'm going to keep at it until I feel like I've mastered it.

Hope you're having a great week and as always, thanks for stopping by.