from the studio

I made sure I had some solid studio time this weekend. An offer I couldn't refuse (and yes, I do love the movie that made that quote famous) landed in my lap which means I need to get off my behind and move a bit quicker on some things. (More details shortly on what the project is since it will be revealed in a few weeks, I couldn't be more excited about it!)

My goal for this weekend was to get every single piece for the April show underway. That meant I had to conquer the bases of both Beasts and one smaller piece that comes in at 20"x20".

But first, I had to deal with this:

You'd think I'd be embarrassed to show you that but I know you understand. I'm still waiting for someone to start a studio cleaning service, I'd probably keep them on retainer.

Half an hour later I had this (and no, I didn't toss everything on the ground to get a clean picture, although I was tempted):

I discovered something amazing once things were tidied. I could put Beast #1 up on the table to work:

 It hangs off the edge but who cares? My back rejoiced, no weird contorted floor crawl was necessary.

Incredible what happens when we clean, isn't it? ;-)

Didn't take long to complete the background on this one:

(Sorry to make you deal with the lousy photos, was too tired to shove things around to get better ones.)

Spurred by being able to stand to work on these larger pieces, I tackled the background for Beast #2 as well:

After finishing Beast #1, I wanted to see if how it would look if I used smaller pieces of fabric like I do on my littler canvases. I thought I might like the effect better.

I can't say I prefer it, I like the way both came out. I still have to do more to these but this is the time consuming part. The rest of it can be picked away at a little bit each day and I'm going to make an effort to do that no matter how tired I am. Sometimes its better for me to work when I'm tired, I just do. I don't think as hard.

After those two, the 20" x 20" was cake:

So now all the backgrounds are done. I've got some decision to make as to how far I want the other layers to go. There is part of me that feels like these are mostly done but I love layers so much, I know that these can be much richer and more complicated. Which is most likely where I will end up taking them.

Can't wait to break out the paints! :)