*Lyrics from Petition by Tennis from their album Young & Old. I found them, on (you guessed it!) spotify when looking for similar artists to Hospitality. However, be forewarned, there are two bands called Tennis. This one is NOT the hip-hop one, but rather the indie pop one that’s interesting and St. Vincent-esque. They also have an interesting story behind their music. Have a listen or a read and let me know what you think.
Brushstrokes, colors, movement, line weight - all these things were experiments, and things I don't normally get to play around with when doing household painting chores.
Between all the chores we’ve been tackling to get the house ready to be on the market – finishing out the exterior with a freshened up side porch, replaced stairs off the porch, fresh paint and stain on just about everything, new storm doors and lighting – we’ve had barely any time to do anything fun. Just for pleasure. And my body seems permanently crunched into a semi-bent position, complete with crooked hand just waiting to hold a paint brush. Despite needing to complete yet more chores that involved painting (chiefly, interior trim and door painting), I snuck in a few moments here and there to finally complete my very first painting. You know, with paint. Colors. And canvas. Just for fun. Just for me. (Well, ok, for us.)
For the past few weeks we’ve been trying to finish up every lingering project around here so that we can actually relax and enjoy our home (until we sell it, of course). It’s summer, after all, and we need to have some hammock time. And badminton tournaments. Which are really just exercises in several-minute-long volleys, no points awarded, just laughing, and trying not to twist our ankles. But we realized that we should also complete some of the things we’ve been tinkering on that were just for beauty’s sake, and not for some practical consideration.
Many, many moons ago, Jeff and I bought some canvases from Michael’s. We got large scale ones, and thought it would be fun to attempt to create some modern, abstract art in a palette that we both liked. Well, let me tell you: abstract art is fucking hard. Don’t let the simplicity of experts’ art fool you – careful, measured, restrained, and refined art is a skill, and not one you can fake easily. I have a generally decent level of artistic ability, but a true fine artist I am not (yet). It took me many drafts (at least three), many months of pondering and considering (and hating) each iteration, and many hours crouched, holding a paint brush, squinting at my novice attempt at ‘art.’ (It seems no matter what I try I am doomed to be folded in half, wiping paint on my knees, transforming whatever comes my way.)
The canvas size is about 36x24, which was large enough to be awkward to paint, but not quite large enough to hang above the fireplace.
I also made a simple painting for the dining room, with just some numerals on a white canvas. The number is significant to us for a couple of reasons, least of all that it’s the number of years that our baby dog was alive. (We still miss her, every day.) I may not be done with this one, yet, but for now, I’m comfortable propping it on the sideboard and using it as a graphic layering piece. If I tinker with it in the future, I’ll be sure to post my revisions.
A graphic numeral 12 serves as a backdrop to the etsy art, books and collectables we have on our dining room sideboard.
Art is something that will be in my life for the rest of my life. I loved doing it, and, even though I’m not 100% happy with the end product (what artist/perfectionist is ever happy with their work?), I’m proud of the fact that I tried it. I feel happy that I learned a bit more about how paint works, how I see color, and what does or doesn’t work composition-wise. And I don’t hate my art. I rather like it. Not unlike our badminton-for-no-points tournaments, sometimes art-for-the-sake-of-the-process is just as fun. Try it. You might love it.
More pictures, up close and personal style. Enjoy! xoxo
