Just before Thanksgiving, we decided to put our house on the market. We’d been talking about it for a couple of years but just thought, let’s just do it and see what happens. Knowing that we were headed into the slow time in the real estate market, we didn’t expect and offer that had us packing over the holidays and moving shortly after. Amazingly enough – I did find time in between packing boxes and goodwill runs to paint. I just didn’t have the time or energy to share them. I have four new pieces completed.
One of my goals for the new year was to EXPERIMENT. So along with the finger-painting that I’ve been toying with, I have explored color, subject and varying degrees of texture. Unfortunately the pictures don’t show some of the built up layers of color or texture that you can see in person. But here they are-
We’ve been looking at new homes and condos in the city. A place that obviously inspires me! These first two paintings came from ideas while we were out house hunting. The first was a typical rainy winter day in the Northwest. We were walking through a downtown park trying to get a feel for the neighborhood surroundings. In the park, pedestrians had their jackets bundled close, umbrellas out heading to dryer destinations. I often paint a person or group of people on a clear path… heading up or down a narrow city street working towards home (or where ever). This scene struck me as I felt I was ‘wandering’ in the midst of all of the people who knew right where they were going and were in a hurry to get there. We were walking slow with the bustle of momentum and the chill of the cold weather picking up the pace of the people around us – who were all On Separate Paths.
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On Separate Paths by Deb Houston
It’s much easier to express the thought behind this second one. Another day of house/condo hunting in the city. In this case there were two buildings connected by an outdoor skybridge. It had been cold and raining when we entered the building. We walked through the condo, considered the amenities and had to cross the skybridge to see what all it had to offer. Just then, the sun came from behind the clouds and made a great scene across it.
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Sky Bridge by Deb Houston
These bottom two don’t have the same type of story. I’ve been playing with bridge ideas for some time. I scoured the internet looking for potential photos and finally came across one that seemed to ‘stick’. I was looking for a mood that the photo just didn’t have so I messed with it, off and on for days on photoshop before I felt the emotion was right. I HARDLY EVER paint from a photo reference. So this was fun to find the photo, make so many adjustments, created the mood, build the texture and still not have it just be from an image in my mind.
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Midnight Crossings by Deb Houston
And finally a link back to my landscapes. I have been so busy with street scene paintings that my landscapes have ended up on the back burner. One fresh idea and 36 hours was all it took. (Start to finish in a day and a half… my husband could barely pry me out of the studio). You’ll see more landscape work in the posts to come.
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Across the Marsh by Deb Houston
*** Three of the four of these are finger paintings. The other (Skybridge) was painted with a pallet knife and brush.
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