"Tulips on Orange Batik Shawl"

"Tulips on Orange Batik Shawl" -- oil on canvas 24x24" -- Margie Guyot

Surprisingly, cut tulips seem to last a lot longer than I'd expected.  And they get more and more interesting as they age, with leaves twisting and the blossoms leaning and opening wider.  Why throw them out? 

For an interesting challenge, I decided to set them upon a bright orange batik shawl I'd snagged at a rummage sale.  Some people might find this garish, but I loved it.  It's a bright bit of "fire" in an otherwise dark, gloomy Michigan winter.

One trick I discovered about painting fabric wrinkles is to use Liquin and paint in the "hills and valleys" in the solid background color.  In a day or so the surface will be dry enough to paint in the printed design.  I didn't always know this.  Felt like a genius when I finally figured it out!

And no, it still didn't make things much easier for painting wrinkled fabrics --- only a bit quicker!  But what else is there to do up here in winter?  I refuse to pay for TV (so I don't have any).  And housecleaning is SUCH a drag.  You clean and the next day everything's trashed again.  Might as well sit and play around with colors!

"Lunch Break"

"Lunch Break" -- oil on canvas -- 24x30" -- Margie Guyot

Pansies are such sweet little flowers, so welcome after the long winter! I snapped up a flat of them one day last week, getting an assortment of every available color. After laying in the basic lines of the composition, I spent an entire afternoon painting in the blooms. They wouldn't last.

From there it was relatively easy. The pineapple pitcher came from a resale shop. I'll have to use it again -- it's just too cool!

The striped glasses seemed to go well with things, although they're pretty tough to paint. Obelisks are always a big challenge.

But where did I stash my gardening gloves? I've had to move everything I own several times in the past 2 years, so it took a while to find them. These gloves were fairly easy to paint, thank goodness!

I'd painted in the outline of the plate but left finishing it for last. What to put on that plate? I've used cookies so often, I wanted something else. The grocery stores up here offer such nasty-looking pastries: electric blue frosting, plastic toys, glitter -- ugh! So I decided to paint a sandwich. Alas, I haven't had bread in the house in over a year. Luckily, my neighbor Pete had some and graciously gave me 2 slices. I slapped some lettuce between and quickly painted it.

The laundry needed tending, so by the time I got back to the studio, the kitties had disassembled the sandwich. No meat -- sorry buddies! I gave the lettuce & bread to the chickens.

Still, the sandwich looked a bit bare. An olive would look spiffy! Rummaged around in the fridge and found a jar. Yikes! It was pretty old. The olives had turned brown. Had to paint the olive from memory.

This painting went fairly quickly, as I've finally gotten a lot better about using Liquin as a medium. Instead of having to wait days for a section to dry, I can usually continue painting the next day. Ah, what is that saying? "Better living though chemistry!"