Grin and bear it

IMG_9790By painting a glaze of very light grey over the sky and taking most of it off with a rag I’ve brought solidity to the bottom of the clouds, then put on some pure titanium white on the top edges, picking up the highlighted bright sunlit cotton wool of the cumulus masses.

That’s one of those big Californian June skies we’ve been having this month. I love this place.

The bear needed much more substance, so using my palette knife I scraped white over the first layer to build depth and dimension. Soon I’ll put a lot more detail into the pelt.

There was a large group of cheerleading trainers here for a weekend retreat to learn how to pass on their extraordinary gymnastics to high school kids. I’ve never seen such amazing flips and spins as I did today from these young men and women. I hope to shoot pictures of one of them tomorrow for the scorpion painting – funny how these things fall into place so perfectly – synchronicity is wonderful.

About pearce

Michael Pearce is an artist, writer, and professor of art. He is the author of "Art in the Age of Emergence."
This entry was posted in Fortitude, Making work, Tarot-related paintings, The Cardinal Virtues. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Grin and bear it

  1. deb says:

    LOL I give up!

  2. pearce says:

    I got too busy to get the shot yesterday, so I missed them, but have a yogini who I’m looking forward to taking pictures of who can do the scorpion. I think there’s another group of acrobatic cheerleaders coming in this week too, so I’ll see if I can speak to the organizers.

    Thanks for the bear stories, I enjoyed them. Beary good.

    I suppose that if that big black bear had sat on your car it could have bruined your day?

  3. deb says:

    ok no more bad bear puns already!! Cheerleaders are pretty amazing creatures… when my oldest daughter wanted to join I was not in favor, but as it is her life I let it ride, and was amazed when I saw their first exhibition. She was a flyer and the stuff she did was brave and fearless and amazing. Sitting in a gm full of teen aged girls can get really old after a while, but I did fill some sketchbooks with amazing little gestures of flying, tumbling girls!

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