These are a few of my favourite things!

So for our first painting we had to bring three of our favourite things, compose and take a photo of them then paint it. I chose my favourite shoes as any girl would, a hookah pipe which was a gift from Caroline and a glass bead neck piece i got from Karen. It was so exciting to start painting but this was a struggle for me because it was here that I learnt that there is more to painting than laying colours on a canvas, there were different hues, shades, lines, surfaces and folds that need to emerge from the nothingness of the canvas. I do think though that what enjoyed most is the use of all the colours on my palette resulting in this explosion of colour!

Something for the birds

The quickest painting I have ever completed. I was done in two sittings, well actually the initial sitting was a session of throwing industrial enamel (black) then I took the piece home for some inspiration and to try find form...I got nothing. Six months later I grabbed the piece from my ironing board because I had nothing else to work on and took it to the studio. I set it down and viola! I found about six bird forms and highlighted them with pastel colours and I was done. This was for me the first time I felt creative as an artist because I wasn't painting from a tangible object. It is quite a brilliant painting and I did it with minimum painter's block so I LOVED IT! I will try and get a better quality image so that the brilliance shines through *giggles*

Exhibit A!!!

I had my first exhibition this past weekend and absolutely loved it. It was a huge ego boost for me, I got a lot of positive feedback about the pieces that were exhibited and a ton of amazing tips from other artists. My friends showed up in droves, it is so nice to be reminded of all the people who've 'got my back'.I also sold a painting, the Fire on the Mountain, it felt good to sell but I was a tiny bit sad to part with that piece because I adore it but now you can call me Artist Cita, R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Mary Daggers

Aahhhhh, emotional turmoil!!!!!!This painting haunts me, it started off as a fun, airy fairy abstract but evolved into this piece that depicts my conflict with religion in general and the Catholic church in particular. Raised a good Catholic girl i find myself questioning my faith, my foundation. The daily reports of the Vatican defending corrupt clergy who do despicable things to children has caused internal queasiness that only a soul searching venture can ease. Some love it, some hate it but to me Mary Daggers poses many questions about moi!

NINE MILLION BICYCLES- Katie Melua

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing.That's a fact,

It's a thing we can't deny .Like the fact that I will love you till I die.

We are twelve billion light years from the edge,That's a guess,

No-one can ever say it's true, But I know that I will always be with you.

I'm warmed by the fire of your love everyday
So don't call me a liar,
Just believe everything that I say

There are six BILLION people in the world. More or less
and it makes me feel quite small. But you're the one I love the most of all

We're high on the wire.With the world in our sight
And I'll never tire,Of the love that you give me every night

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing That's a Fact,
it's a thing we can't deny.Like the fact that I will love you till I die

And there are nine million bicycles in Beijing
And you know that I will love you till I die!

Jammin'

We Jamnin'
wanna jam it wid you.
We're jammin', jammin',
And I hope you like jammin', too.

This was my second session with Jammin' dude, the first was just sketching and laying out the figures. This was also the first time I painted this year so i was rather crusty, I actually just put colours down neglected to shade or actually paint. I felt like I was colouring. I am hoping that as I continue the painting will become more dimensional and not so flat. As the man tells his story through song I will attempt to tell my story through his image which i obtained from the good people at flickr.com

05-02-2010
Lord I really need to sort his face out...I'm loving it so far but there is still so much to do














23-06-2010
DONE!

Chaos

Diego Maradona...this painting actually started off as a bet when a very good friend of mine and I were in bar (Six...where all good ideas are born) and I was challenged to replicate the painting on the wall...and a challenge it was! Firstly finding the source material proved a rather daunting task as it turns out that the painting at six was a painting of the cover illustration of Maradona's Autobiography rather than an actual photograph. So I had to settle to painting it from a copy of the cover, which was very poor quality copy. Thus a lot of the figures and shadows in the piece are a result of improvisation on my part so I struggled throughout entire process. Cameron my art teacher insisted that I put all the minor details in, I was planning to just do a black background with fireworks or something cheesy just to get done but i stuck with it and tried to get it close to the cover as possible. I found it frustrating and not being in love with the subject matter added to the stress. I did get it done, albeit not the same as the one at Six, it got done!

BTW, as I was painting this I did do some research on the oke and found him a rather interesting subject. The soccer world loves him and loves to hate him. I checked out some of his footage and Maradona's talent and his ability to keep me watching a soccer match explains why he is legendary and the greatest soccer player ever. I'm looking forward to seeing him at South Africa's WC :)

Source Material: Maradona: Autobiography of Soccer's Greatest and Most Controversial Star

Fire on the Mountain

Red dust of crimson earth taints the burnt sky as the blood of forgotten warriors soaks the thirsty soil. Rusty vermilion tears carve trenches in shadows of novice widows, while the scorching sun continues to desiccate tomorrow's harvest...

This is my latest abstract, it was completed in only two sittings at the studio because it was pure bliss. The idea came from a good friend of mine Caroline who wanted a red three piece abstract for her home...voila! I thoroughly enjoyed this mainly because I had artistic licence and it could really be whatever I wanted it to be...as long as it was red. I particularly like the burst of yellow in the background, it reminds me of summer sun.

The Kalahari San

This was my first attempt at an abstract painting. Initially blue, white and grey enamel was thrown on canvass with the intention to do some sort of thunderous stormy ocean abstract but once the enamel was dry the idea of imposing the San man image emerged.

I found painting on the enamel extremely tricky, depth and definition hard because of the different shades of browns/red/yellow. The piece was challenging for me but also one of the most rewarding finished paintings so far. I managed to visually express emotion :) and isn't that what it is all about?


Original Photo sourced from :http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/

All I have!

Hours in the field and this is all I have. This is all I have! I toiled in the hot African sun, splinters, blisters and boils and this is all I got. My children need nourishment and this is all I can give, the earth won't give me one extra bean as the clouds did not provide one extra drop...we have to make do with what we have, this is it!

This piece was a pleasure to work on, I loved the grittiness and realness of it all. I breezed though it albeit found the beans a tad annoying but it was all in the name of love. The thought of a labourer's day's hard work and the measly produce can fit in his palm.

Original Source: Luis Sevilla, Mozambique