...something new.. AGAIN!

i dont know why i cant ever just stick with one thing, but im excited that ive started attempting realism with acrylics. its late, im tired, not much talk from me this time around.

it all started with a painting of a cone flower intended for my mother in law, which turned into an ugly awful frankenflower very quickly. it was so bad..i deleted the pictures of it. that painting has since been painted over and after much frustration and some kicking myself in the nuts, i decided to try again. this time with a different flower.

here is the reference photo i used for the Zinnia flower

and here is the Zinnia ( i say Zin-nee-yah but ive heard its Zeen-yah )  flower painting that i did. Its 9 x 12 on canvas and theres a good bit of glare on the pic but you get the idea. a vast improvement from the franken-cone-flower . not exact but using one reference instead of a few (like the cone flower) seemed to be the answer

and heres a stargazer lily photo that i referenced for the next one, thanks google

and the painting that followed. i think this is 12x12. acrylic on canvas. 

and heres the last one that i did. i found this snail on google images and feel like a dick for not giving photo credit (for using all of these images really) i dont know if its really expected because its a different medium or how that works but if you took this photo (or any of these flower pics too) thank you. i loved them so much i painted them

progress, with reference photo

background done

body done

I didn't choose the slug life, the slug life chose me. 12x15 acrylic on canvas

and there you have it. im trying new things as i can. i would really like to do some creepy bugs but it seems that when i sit on an idea for more than a couple days...it loses its appeal and i dont want to do it anymore. i want to stick with the realism aspect of painting what i see, developing texture and depth. these are mainly to try and train my brain and make me a better artist so who knows...hopefully it will work!

in the interest of humility here is a picture of a flower i painting in 2011, keep in mind its only 4x4 inches but still...its pretty janky

look at this damn... thing.

Im starting to question whether 'talent' is a real thing or not. i think hard work, patience and practice will take you alot further than 'talent' will. Talent might get you where you want to be, but without hard work or practice, you wont stay there for very long. Initially I was really happy with the way these paintings came out...slowly the work i put in was showing and taking a step back from the canvas every hour or so gave me the confirmation that it was really starting to come together. but now, after finishing the snail...im beginning to think to myself that they arent so special. i mean, after all, they are just replications of photographs (and some would say not very well rendered) applied with paint to canvas. is it "art"?

so ive been going back and forth in my head trying to determine where im going with these..what the process is doing for me, what i am learning, etc. vs hey, is this art or what? its probably more important to practice and learn from the experience rather than define it.


thats it for now. im looking into some art classes and hopefully i will follow thru and actually register and take them instead of just typing and talking about it. thanks for looking!