The Featured Art Gallery Has Been Updated

The second part of ‘Tell Them What I See’ has been updated in the Featured Art Gallery.

If spelling is a life test then I’m failing miserably and autocorrect is helping that failure at an alarming rate. I read over some of my entries and was like, what? I didn’t use that word, that’s a totally different word. Curses to you autocorrect! See in my eyes the anger, see me wave my fist in fury.

fma

My Blue Wonder

Blue Wonder - Available

I’m loving every second of abstract art. This should be a fun year. My art goals for 2017 now show on my sidebar.

Blue is a color I use quite often in my art and more recently turquoise has made it’s permanent mark. I’ve seen it so much that I’m beginning to think about its use, what does it mean to me, what does it symbolize and will it, like other colors, keep its meaning over time?

My page called Art Therapy  talks about color choices and art symbols specific to me. Off the top of my head I would place turquoise next to blue and purple symbols. I see it as a color of strength, of depth, honor, birth rights.

Continue reading “My Blue Wonder”

She Brings Home the Light

She Brings Home the Light - availableShe’s long. Her body and imagination stretch far, farther than anyone expected. Flowers bloom around her in every known species. Flourishing are the petals of delicate purple flowers, blooms of soft blue, golden sun yellow and soothing buttercup. She is wrapped in the color of the rainbow and holds in her hand a shining star, a beaming star whose light she keeps in her heart.

A Little History
“She Brings Home the Light” started with a simple swirl in the middle of sanded Burch wood panel. I knew I wanted a young woman to be in the middle of growth, for her to be held by but I struggled to translate the idea on canvas. I put her up and took her down more times than I can count.

I knew I was getting closer to what I wanted but there was still something missing, so on the shelf she stayed. At one point I decided I should hang her up so as to see her daily and toss around ideas of how to accurately translate the image in my head.She Brings Home the Light - available

I refused to stray from the original vision.

As time went on, by time I mean years, I added a stroke here, removed a stroke there. Ah, then the end of 2016 came and the drive to finish her grew strong. After years of strokes, dots, dabs and flower petals I knew I accurately placed the image in my head onto the panel that patiently waited to be called ‘finished’. I present to you a SUNDRIP – Art for Life original called “She Brings Home the Light.”

Art Title: “She Brings Home the Light”
Art by: Faith Magdalene Austin
Media: Acrylic, ink on Burch board
Size: 11.3.5 x 7.5
Finish: Hand sealed, signed on front and back,
Style: Whimsical, African American Art

Original art can be purchased through PayPal or by visiting my Etsy shop. Please see the link on the sidebar for contact information and for the Etsy link. Have questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks you for visiting Sundrip,
Faith

Risk in Art. The Comfort Zone.

Fall Tree - available
Fall Tree – available

There’s an art piece I labored over posting but that piece got the strongest reaction and ‘sold’ very quickly. The reason sold is in quotes is explained in a separate entry.

When I looked at the piece I liked it, a lot. I like the texture in the turquoise, I like the way the colors at the bottom came together. I like that painting, but I didn’t think others would. I questioned my abilities because I was viewing other blogs and felt so inferior. I posted it though, and I was surprised by the response both public and through email.

I don’t know if I’ll be the type of artist that puts her work on the net with full confidence, but I will keep taking risks in my art, keep trying new things and keep to the styles and media that I am most comfortable with. I can risk and keep my comfort zone. There’s nothing wrong with a comfort zone, it’s not a bad thing to be comfortable. Continue reading “Risk in Art. The Comfort Zone.”

Storewide Thank You Discount

20% off Discount Code ELEVENTHHOUR1

I’d like to express my thanks further by offering the very first ever storewide discount. In all my years of public and private sales I have given 3 discount coupons to individuals. This is the first public discount at 20% off store wide. Share on social media if you will.

Although you are seeing the Etsy Mini, you may still purchase through PayPal and receive 20% off. The discount code should be entered at checkout.

ELEVENTHHOUR1

Faith

Some Things Aren’t Easy to Look At

Ariel knew d1 They just aren’t, some issues are so frightening that even in the line of the sun they are still pitch black, still frightening.

When I painted this child, I did so with full knowledge that she may not sell. I have a problem though, I can’t paint gentle art if that’s not what’s inside. So I did what I do. I painted what I know.

Little Ariel knew it would rain. How does a person with Fibromyalgia and /or Lupus know it’ll rain even without turning on the weather report? Our bones tell us. The pain level shoots up high. Our eye sight is affected. Our fingers, lips and toes get cold. The pain level shoots up so high and so fast that it’ll double the body over. What’s interesting to me is that I’m caught off guard every time.

I hold my side. I’m bending down, seconds from loosing lunch, but it hasn’t clicked. I don’t understand what’s happening to my body. When I try to get to the car I see its sprinkling, raining or even light snow. Now it makes sense. Finally I realize the weather system has changed  and that has affected my pain, my complexion, fingers, lips, eyes and my ability to think rationally. It’s as if I’ve been sucked in and can’t see my way out….  but not so fast. I can see my way out. Continue reading “Some Things Aren’t Easy to Look At”

Bruised Reed

Bruised Reed
Bruised Reed

When I posted this work on Etsy where I offer original art, I got a comment from another artist that really made me smile. Right away that artist recognized from where I got the phrase, “bruised reed.” I was surprised by that but it was a welcome surprise.

Her face is striking; I know.
She pulls at the heart; I know.
She’s stripped to the bone.
She’s bruised but not broken.

Art Title: Bruised Reed
Art by: Faith Magdalene Austin
Size and Medium: black ink, strikes of color on light grain sketchbook paper. 4.5 × 7, signed, sealed, mounted. * SOLD *

Continue reading “Bruised Reed”

The Wanderer – On Fallen Trees

1 In the woods d7The Wanderer is a nature scene of a young black boy sitting on a tree stump. His shirt is the same color as the roots of the trees that continued to grow the day I wandered into the woods through a host of fallen trees. I couldn’t believe the color. I’d never seen anything like it, such a beautiful and vibrant orange roots coming right out of rich, black earth. WOW!

This scene with the African American boy is based on that moment, the moment when I wandered into the woods.

The boy is sitting on the stump in his orange shirt and navy blue jeans with a tiny button. Beside him is a small red bird (cardinal). The bird is also hand sculpted without a cast. Meticulously placed are curly twigs from grape vines and blackberry vines. As in the real life wooded area, large flowers stand nearly frozen in time, as if dried in a flash. Yellow flowers, two white bushes, small hand picked rocks as well as tiny hand painted flowers have been added to a carpet of reindeer moss. The scene is stationed on a ceramic tile with a felt bottom. Continue reading “The Wanderer – On Fallen Trees”

What the Heart Wants

Heart Wants fmaShe stands 6.5 inches tall and is 4 inches wide on heavy weight paper. In order to create your painting I first used crayola crayons then began to smooth the colors together with my fingers. I etched with my fingers then used crayola markers. Water was used to move the marker around creating an etched finger painting in Crayola. Details were added in oil pastel and black ink.

Here she is full of emotion, with her eyes closed, head to the side and heart exposed and open. She is vulnerable, full of love, capable of loving much. But what is it that her heart wants? She closes her eyes and she listens. Continue reading “What the Heart Wants”