A mistake and how I fixed it

This is an 8x10 painting on watercolor paper. I started it the way I do most of my watercolor paintings - a pencil sketch and then working quickly to color in the painting, letting it dry between layers.

But the orange paint of the cat got away from me, I wet the paper more than usual and his ear got smudged. Orange paint made a big lump on his head.

So I finished the rest of the painting and then did the background with dioxazine purple acrylic paint. That's a very dark color and it looks almost black.

I like the way it came out. It has a bit of an Eastern European look to it, with the dark background and bright colors.

It's difficult to scan paintings with acrylic. The type of acrylic paint I use is glossy, and it looks great in real life but it picks up glare in scans and photos.

I'm happy I was able to save this painting! I may do some more with this technique.

Rose Cat

Rose Cat, originally uploaded by Melsky.

New painting! This is 8x10 inches, watercolor and ink on watercolor paper.

For Sale in Abstract Floral and Cat Art by Melsky

I'm pretty busy at work but finding a small amount of time to paint. I'm going to take some time off this weekend, maybe take a 4 day weekend.

Welcome

I'm on a sign painting rampage! I love these signs. They look so cute in the house all together. I guess I should take a photo of that.

Welcome Sign for sale

I'm really sleepy today.

Cosmic Cafe Sign

Cosmic Cafe Sign, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I've started doing a series of signs on wood.

In the early 90s I used to make a lot of signs and sell them in a store on Haight Street when I lived in San Francisco.

I love painting on wood. Once I mentioned this to someone and they launched into this long series of instructions for how to paint on wood: first, sand the hell out of it. Then put on many, many coats of gesso until it is totally smooth.

But that's not painting on wood, that's painting on gesso! I like painting on naked wood, so that the grain shows through. Sometimes I use transparent colored glazes on it so the wood shows through even more.

A lot of what I like is the way the paint absorbs into the wood very fast. If you gesso the wood, you don't get that beautiful absorption.

Anyway, here's my Cosmic Cafe sign on etsy

I ate too much, despite my best intentions

Pink Peony Mirror, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I've been busy painting. I'm almost done with my cat and desert themed Christmas painting that I am going to use on my cards.

I sold a painting today!

Since I don't have anything new I thought I would put up one of my older pieces that I think is really nice. It's a mirror but when I scanned it, it came out black!

Pink Peony Mirror

Cat and Flying Fish Magnet

Cat and Flying Fish Magnet, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I just finished this today, and put it in my store:

Cat and Fish magnet

I finished this a few days ago, but it sold already! Yay.



Not much going on, just doing a lot of walking, decorating in the house, putting up curtains, making Chicken Cattiatore. I'm not painting as much as I would like to but I'm still painting every day.

I SOLD MY TABLE!

Thank you Craigslist.

I kind of miss the table but it's nice to have the room in our living room, and one less thing to worry about.

I'm working on my huge, huge desert margarita painting right now. Well, I'm taking a little break. I've been busy with helping David get ready for his job interview - printing out maps, sewing buttons on his suit, polishing his shoes and getting a hotel for us. I picked one across the street from a mall and down the road from a cemetery so I will have places to go while he's in the interview. There's a post office in the mall which is very, very convenient too. I have a bunch of stuff to mail.


This is my old table, the one I still have.

The Table is finished!

The Table is finished!, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Here it is. I'm going to sell it on Craigslist.

Today we had people look at the apartment and a few of them were interested in my paintings. I gave them business cards. There's more people coming to look at it this afternoon.

I'm really tired. I'm having a hard time getting to sleep before midnight these days, and usually much after midnight. On Thursday I stayed up until 3.

Yesterday after the people came to see the apartment we went out and had sushi and sake as an appetizer, Cider at the Cloak and Dagger pub and dinner at Cafe Diplomatico. It was pretty cool to be able to have Japanese, Irish and Italian food all in a few blocks.

I finished my table and it looks great

Actually I still have to paint the clear sealant coat on it, but that's easy. What's hard is the table needs to be moved upstairs so it can be shut up in my studio away from the hair producing monsters (cats). But it's good to have it done.

Tomorrow people are coming to look at the house, I think multiple people and I need to get it tidied up and get stuff put away, like prescription drugs and our wallets and stuff. I hate this.

I'm sleepy but I am going to henna my hair before I go to sleep.

This is me, on Saturday, all sweaty with messy hair but it's a good photo. I'm starting to lose more weight in my face.

I'm really enjoying the whole weight loss/working out in the gym thing. I love watching fat disappear from various parts of my body and get replaced by muscle.

The photo was taken on a bridge over the Don River. We went on a very long walk, from our house to Riverdale. It was about 13 kilometers. Then we had steaks at the Tulip, a Toronto institution, one of those restaurants that's been there forever. Dave thought the gravy was salty and I was surprised to see

I've gotten a commission for a painting, based on this painting, Saguaro Margarita. The original of the painting is 9x12, and this version is going to be 30x40! It's going to Arizona where it will hang in a bar. I'm excited to have such a large commission. Tomorrow I go to Tern Art Supplies and get the canvas. The people saw it on my Wonder Valley Desert page.

It's starting to get hot here. I put in the air conditioner a week ago and we used it for the first time tonight. Or rather Dave used it. I've gotten much more resilient to temperatures.

Sunflower Shirt

Today I painted a flower on a shirt. It had a very ugly grease stain front and center. I thought about making the shirt into a rag or just wearing it around the house, but I don't have a lot of these type t shirts and I wanted to save this one.

First I laid my shirt out on the table, and put papers inside, so the paint wouldn't transfer through to the back. Then I went to the kitchen to get the water and when I came back, it seems my cat Mintyfresh had other ideas for the shirt. At least there was no wet paint on it.



Then I started the painting. I did it freehand because I'm very used to painting flowers. But you could cut out a pattern or just sketch one with some tailor's chalk.

I used Golden brand acrylics. They are not specifically a fabric paint, but I have had much luck with them painting on fabric. In fact I prefer them to fabric paints. They are heavily pigmented and last well.

It's important to have a stiff brush to scrub the paint into the fabric. Usually I like to paint acrylics with a soft brush, but I use bristle here.

I ironed them to set (with a cloth over them).

I bought some copper colored iridescent seed beads, and I'm thinking of sewing them in the middle in a random pattern, kind of like seeds. But I'm thinking the comfort may suffer, and I wear this shirt to the gym.

We are also moving, so it's a time thing as well. This shirt is a little big for me, so I don't want to spend a ton of time on it. It looks good enough as is and I'm just glad I can wear it outside the house. I'm going to use the sunflower/seed bead idea for something else.

Here's me in the shirt:
Those are some of my paintings in the background, and what I didn't notice as I was taking this photo - my cat Oliver in the left bottom corner.

Click on any of the photos to see them larger.

Rose Mirror

Rose Mirror, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I just put a lot of stuff into my store. I'm trying to put something every day. This is a mirror I painted when I did that art show at the Lula Lounge. I have a lot of stuff to put up. The listing process on Etsy is cumbersome.

It's hard to take photos of mirrors. The unaltered version of this photo has me behind the camera in shown in the mirror, and it's not a flattering photo! So I just cut and pasted a better photo. This is me at the Rhino bar and grill.

Melsky Art Store

Not a lot going on today. My feet are better. My sinus/respiratory infection is a little better. I feel ok in the middle of the day but at night and in the morning I feel horrible.

Art Storage Boxes

Art Storage Boxes
Originally uploaded by Melsky.

These are recycled boxes covered with acrylic paint and collage. Lately I haven't been concentrating on selling my art so much. I've been making a lot of art for our home instead.

I had been keeping things organized in these shoeboxes and was looking for some more permanent boxes to keep them in. But one night I just started painting the boxes. I like how they turned out.

I painted the table they are on also.