last night, i decided to try my hand at palette knife painting. well, i can say i don't like it much, but for the texture of the wall. i didn't have any success with the tree and plants so instead of using palette knife, i cheated and used a piece of sponge. i couldn't get the highlights of the leaves correctly but the right shoulder was already complaining so that would have to be done later. i used brush on the door as i couldn't get the right blending. when i showed it to my sister and my brother, i told them i would put the street number of our old family house back in the old country where we grew up. my sister suggested we had a horseshoe on our door so i added the horseshoe to make the painting mine. the colour of the door didn't turn out like the one in the tutorial which was darker. but i remember this is the same colour of our door in that family house, and perhaps as beaten up as this before i had the house renovated.
our wall though was of wooden planks. i remember there was a little hole on the wall and you can just reach in to unlatch the what do you call it...latch inside. when i was already working and was dating, my then boyfriend loved to go disco dancing and i would come home late, to the consternation of our father.
our advent was and still is celebrated by coming to "midnight mass" which was held at the unholy hour of four o'clock in the morning. my sister would bring the neighbourhood children to mass and would buy them treats that were only available during the Christmas season and the children loved it. because my sister was a deep sleeper and had been late waking up for the mass, she would tie a long string to her wrist that she would hang through the window and the children would wake her up by tugging at the string.
one night, i came home at almost 3 in the morning. the light was on in the living room but when i unlatched the door, to my horror, i found that our father propped a chair on the door knob so that even if the latch was unlatched, the chair would make a dragging noise and that would surely wake him up. i hated having an argument with him whenever i'd come home late. what to do then?
aha! the string. i pulled that string so hard like my life depended on it and i heard my sister yell, "alright! alright! i'm awake." she looked out the window and said "it's still early" thinking it was one of the children. "it's me, open the door."
we had a sort of cuckoo clock that works with a pendulum and chain and weight. before she went to remove the chair, she moved the hands of the clock to 10:30 the usual time i arrive at night from school (we've done that a number of times whenever we tried to cheat our parents with time 😜). our father then woke up as she was removing the chair; his first reaction was to look at the clock, pulled the chain and put the weight back up so that the clock would not stop until the morning. he said he thought it was already morning (the neighbour's rooster had started to crow by then) then he went back to his bedroom. before going to our upstairs bedrooms, i moved the hands to an hour behind the actual time. 🤣
when we reached up, my sister said, "next time can you go easy on pulling that string? i thought i was going to lose my arm!"
Well well... When I read that it was not a real door and building, i had to look again at the picture. I won;t try to convince you of anything. I would feel fulfilled if I painted this. I love palette knife painting. Again: are you sure you didn;t take a picture of a real door and wall?
The eye is so drawn to the perfect texture of the wall and door, that the bushes there become secondary, however they give character to the entire painting and enhance it. Did I say I love this painting and I wish I painted it?
Hey! I forgot!
whom (or who?) did you cheat? in art, anything goes. it is your art, your vision. get yourself a treat for being as creative as to unfollow the trodden path and create your own mark. that needs celebrating!
@30pics4jackiesdiamond@monikozi - i forgot the shadow of the climbing plant. 🤣 i actually did it before i painted the plants but it looked crappy so i whited it out. in the actual canvas i could still discern the offending shadows so i think i will leave this as it is. thanks, ladies.
@monikozi - "Again: are you sure you didn;t take a picture of a real door and wall?" that's what my sister in the old country asked me when i sent this to her. the other sister who lives here in toronto was here yesterday and she said if she didn't see all the materials scattered all over the place, she wouldn't have believed i did it. it was her who suggested the addition of the horseshoe. really, i was the artless one growing up. but i guess, because this was the one strong suit of our father and he and i were never friends, that i probably unconsciously rejected having this talent just to spite him off. 😜 if anything, i am the most surprised with what i had done with the door. i did it last friday night but wasn;t too happy with the blending so saturday i whited it out and started anew.
Well, i know it is hard to start all over again. I don't do it usually. I'd rather give up. So congratulations on your giving up and on your successful second attempt. Which sister is the artist of the family? Besides you, of course.
By the way: my son appreciated your painting too (i was so excited about it that i had to share with someone).
Just keep it up! Sometimes it's better, sometimes it will be crappy, but it is so worth it. And i am very happy for you to have found this side of you. And to give it a chance. Well done!
@monikozi - the sister in the philippines is the artist, been so since she was a little girl. when she was coming into college, she was afraid that she would be sent to secretarial school like my brother, my sister who is here in toronto and myself. but i was already working at the time so i had quite a few friends in high places and she was directed to one of the companies of one of the richest families in the country and they were able to give her a scholarship and she was able to get her bachelors in arts and masters with the scholarship.
i have three sisters -- https://365project.org/summerfield/365-again/2014-09-03 the youngest (artist) is the one in black; and next to her is the sister who lives here in toronto. the one in pink beside me is the asshole sister who is the mother of my son, my sonofagun!🤣
I honestly thought this was a photo! So again, I think you're being too hard on yourself. Plus who says you have to use only one paint tool when you paint? You can use one thing or a combo of many- that's what "artistic license" is all about! Also there's nothing that says if you're not satisfied with a certain portion that you can't go back and fix it. Most artists I know work on a canvas for weeks before the deem it finished. So I think this is great! And so are the stories- my goodness!
December 11th, 2020
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Loved your story. you really were the character weren’t you?!
The eye is so drawn to the perfect texture of the wall and door, that the bushes there become secondary, however they give character to the entire painting and enhance it. Did I say I love this painting and I wish I painted it?
whom (or who?) did you cheat? in art, anything goes. it is your art, your vision. get yourself a treat for being as creative as to unfollow the trodden path and create your own mark. that needs celebrating!
By the way: my son appreciated your painting too (i was so excited about it that i had to share with someone).
Just keep it up! Sometimes it's better, sometimes it will be crappy, but it is so worth it. And i am very happy for you to have found this side of you. And to give it a chance. Well done!
i have three sisters -- https://365project.org/summerfield/365-again/2014-09-03 the youngest (artist) is the one in black; and next to her is the sister who lives here in toronto. the one in pink beside me is the asshole sister who is the mother of my son, my sonofagun!🤣