Rise
Bright watercolor and colored pencil.
8.5 x 5.5 inches
98lb paper
This is what hope looks like. It’s hands raised and face to the sun. Flowers in full bloom and shoulders light.
Faith Austin
Sundrip
Category: Paper
Art for art’s sake
I changed my tea painting and added a short
quote. I couldn’t help myself. I like it better this way. I think it would look great in an all white frame but there wasn’t one on the framing program used.
“Where there’s tea there’s hope” is a small painting of 4 inches by 6 inches. It’s created in watercolor and ink and is on 98lb paper. The details on the flower and cup are easier to see in person.
I’ve also been playing with acrylic and rubbing alcohol. I cleaned my brushes of acrylic paint on a 4 x 7 piece of cardstock then went back and treated the paper with the 91 percent alcohol. I sprayed some it as well as dropped some. I swirled the paper and let it drip until I saw a pattern I liked.
I can save this textured abstract piece for later as pull art or for a collage. I could add a small cut out from my huge stash. Who knows what the cut out would be. I’ve got everything from figures to flowers to trees and animals, all from art that didn’t work out but that had parts worth saving. I use my x-acto knife and save what can be saved for projects just like this. The other thing is, I can leave it just the way it is and frame it as a temporary piece of art just to look at for a little while. I tend to do that. I switch up art on a wall in the living room making the wall an ever changing, energized display of color and texture.
Here are a few pieces in currently hanging in my living room on the art wall.
Faith
The Resilience Tree Series
The Resilience Tree
Resilience Tree – Beginnings
Resilience Tree – Risen
We have not seen the last of the Resilience Trees. Next year’s creative goals includes a tree a day. I look forward to starting January 1st in a special book just for trees 🙂
Original art by Faith Magdalene Austin is available through PayPal or Etsy. All contact information is on the sidebar. Thank you for visiting Sundrip.
Faith
Gloria and Éponine
When I painted little Gloria I was thinking about the production Les Miserable, about Éponine specifically. That character touches me. She loves intensely but quietly. She needs to be recognized yet she is always in the shadows. She has mastered her environment but her heart has been shielded from decay. She’s rough and fragile, equally.
Good news. The painting Gloria is being packaged to travel half way across the United States to a wall waiting just for her.
Although the original has been placed, you can purchase prints from my Redbubble shop in the section for children. Please see the sidebar for the Redbubble link.
I love moments like this, I really do. Continue reading “Gloria and Éponine”
Red Balloon Has a Wall of It’s Own
Guess what was bartered today? Guess who gets a new home? Red Balloon! Good choice.
The African American boy with blue accents around his eyes stands tall in front of a rainbow background. There’s a faint show of a crown of small, round lights circling young Sam’s head. Open the detailed image and look closely, you’ll see it.
Your light is still there, even if other’s can’t readily see it. So when it glows only above your head just remember, your light shines to guide you, not others.
Art Title: Sam’s Red Balloon
Size: 8.5 x 5.5
Media: watercolor, 98 lb paper
Finish: unsealed, unmounted
Style: African Americana, Black Folk
Sam’s Red Balloon and the Great Pen Incident
I recently purchased a pallet box to hold more watercolors. In one area I selected
colors based on what I use most but on the other side I put colors I need more work with. For the most part, I enjoy watercolors but at times I swear it off saying I’ll never, ever try this media again.
There was a mishap that took place that required damage control. You know those water paint pens? Well, see, no one told me I was supposed to put only water in there. I thought I was to fill the barrel with ink or paint so that’s what I did. Later on I saw in blog entries that they were not used that way. I tried to clean them up as well as possible but it didn’t turn out so great. I was able to clean and save one barrel but all the brush tops. Continue reading “Sam’s Red Balloon and the Great Pen Incident”
Watercolor Play
As I said, I’ve been exploring watercolor. I haven’t done that well with proper techniques but I have played a lot. Here are some abstracts created in watercolor after a session of trying to do stuff right. Play is important. 🙂
Color Rush and Deep Purple Paper are my favorites. In a few of these I dipped stamps in watercolor and stained the paper then began to pile color until I was satisfied. I used a pallet knife to create texture and one had alcohol sprayed on it. That was fun. Three of these have an acrylic finish but two do not. They feel like they could be a small framed painting or even the background for an encaustic art piece.
All are roughly 4 x 6 and are on cardstock, watercolor postcard paper and sketchbook paper.
Faith
Art Adoption: Young Joker
Art without a wall of its own is sad. Â “Young Joker” waited a little bit for the right wall to come along and it did. Packaged ever so carefully, this special art piece will travel to its destiny via US Postal System. It’s a happy day when art gets adopted.
“Young Joker” is a rainbow dance around a patch of white flowers. Wrapped in the landscape are several who are finding their way through the meadow. A black bird takes the same path.
Art Title: Young Joker
Art by: Faith Magdalene Austin
Size: 8.5 × 5.5
Media: Marker, acrylic
Finish: signed on front and back, unmounted, not framed
Paintings that compliment “Young Joker” can be seen in the below gallery and are available via Etsy or PayPal invoice. See the sidebar for details.
Give art a home.
Feed a starving artist. Seriously, I could use a sandwich 🙂
Faith
Attaya and other cultural ceremonies
Summer will bring kids and their parents to my home which means tea and more tea with painting and more painting plus some history tossed in.
Depending on the country, the ceremony or party, the kids use traditional cups dated as late as the 1940’s. My number of countries represented in tea is down to 38 countries because my Kenyan Ceylon container is empty. It’s on my list of must have. We’ve got so many good stores around here but I can’t seem to find one that will order this tea for me. I want the loose leaf by Safari.
I let the kids use vintage and antique cups without worrying too much about them breaking but I went ahead and retired my English rose tea pot. I’m a bit more protective of that one. No one uses my daily tea pot either. I’m even more protective of it. I don’t fret a lot about the cups being broken but I do expect all to use them respectfully. If one should break then it’ll do well as a planter and I can go to Goodwill and search for a replacement. Goodwill is where many online shops get their tea cups for which they charge exorbitant prices.
Here’s a little article on West African tea ‘ceremonies’. I’ve also started a collection of African recipes on my Pinterest page.
Soothing Tree Drawings in Watercolor and Ink
Drawing trees is soothing. I usually draw them bare. I love leaves. i like to see them up close and examine the cells. I recently learned that my sweet potato plant was holding water in the cells of the leaf because I watered too much and too late in the day. Leaves are a beautiful creation but I hardly ever draw them. I like them bare. There’s something so beautifully vulnerable about a bare tree.
I love to follow the designs on bark with my finger. There’s something so …. spiritual….about trees.
When it comes to art, I have a go to doodle. Â I think all artists have a certain something they draw in almost a self soothing kind of way. The self soothing art for me is to draw trees with the branches reaching out, twisting and breaking through the things we can’t even see. Branches break through the air, they hold themselves erect when gravity tries to pull them over. I love that they take their place in the soil and let their roots reach as far and deep as they desire.
I absolutely love above the ground root systems. Those are fun to follow, too. Of course I have to peak in the little crevices where moss grows. I admire spider webs and small bugs that scramble to get away from my curious fingers.
Available
– Available
When I was a kid I was told that if a person draws a tree it usually represents them. I was told that putting a scar on the tree represents personal trauma. I never forgot that. Despite the psychological reasons for drawing trees, doing so is soothing for me.
Two trees displayed in this entry are Pay it Forward art pieces. You can find them in the Community Grabs and PIF section in my Etsy shop.
The first entry on trees has been posted in the Featured Art Gallery. page.
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