Week Eleven: Racing the Birds!

This form of play is one I became very famliar with, ten years ago, with my own foal, Monster. Poor Monster was an 'only baby' and used to play with the birds for entertainment. Jubie's Baby Girl has taken up the same pastime!

This painting was an experiment, in that I used a very unique surface. It's paper made from stone, basically - 75% mineral powder. No trees, no water - talk about an eco-friendly art supply! Does that balance out the use of my solvent-based oils? It's called TerraSkin. Very interesting product. The paint handles very differently on this surface, needless to say! Obviously I need more practice to figure it out a little better, but I'm hoping it might be a cool way to put out some sketches. I think this one is about 6 x 8.

When I was painting this week's painting, I was thinking a lot of a painting done last December by another artist friend, Kathi Peters. Kathi did a lovely painting of a foal playing with birds...which I bought! Kathi is one of my favourite artists, and a very cool person to boot. She's been experimenting herself lately, painting in oil on copper! Definitely worth taking a look!

Your Daily Serving of Protein

Guess what? You don't get to eat this one. This little painting was done with casein paint. I've always joked that casein should be the perfect medium for me, with my Food Science degree, because it's made from the milk protein that gives it its name. I got to study casein (the milk protein, not the paint!) a bit in one of my fourth year courses. I won't enthral you with any of that knowledge right now! This painting is 5 x 7 on gessoed masonite panel. Earlier on in my progress I thought I would go farther than what you see her, but I may just leave it as it is. I kind of like the simplicity, and well, foals are so cute they deserve to be front and centre with as little distraction as possible! (Translation: I'm afraid I'll mess it up!)

I first became aware of casein paint because fellow EAGer Kathi Peters, who works extensively in this medium. Kathi is the Casein Guru ;-) I have a long way to go, that's for sure! Her latest casein WIP was well-timed for me, as I prepped some panels this week in hopes of playing sometime soon. Have a look at her blog to see the pro at work!


In case you're missing the weather report, we've had snow for the last three days. Wednesday was the most significant accumulation, but there has just seemed to be a constant snowfall since then. Apparently it's supposed to warm up tomorrow. None of us are holding our breath! My fellow blogging and artist friend April Jaroka posted a welcome photo of the sun on her blog today. Be sure to visit her painting blog as well for some amazing seascapes...especially if you're sick of all my snow paintings!