Well...June is over as of twenty three minutes ago.  We had a good run, me and June...June and I.  Today was busy, but I made time for my last CED, #182...and then had a VERY productive art night with Jessie, Sof and Jen.  (thanks for the inspiration, ladies!)  It was such a cool feeling, everyone off in their respective areas...Jess standing in front of her giant canvas, attacking it, standing back, talking fast and passionately about what ideas she had for the background, etc...Jen at the laptop, working on her writing...Sof working on her presentation materials, which of course included her artistic touch.

.. as for me, I painted my last Orion Slave girl.  Now they are complete.  I may do some touch ups, but for the most part...done.  And I decided not to submit them to the show that I had in mind since I can't make the reception...will save these for something else.  In the mean time, I guess I will just hang out with them, looking at the glitter and the sparkle.  One thing that I tried to incorporate with these was some flexibility in arrangement.  I used the hair as a design element to connect the three pieces, you may not be able to tell from the photographs I took, but you can actually put them in any order and they line up.  Just for fun, I made a collage of how they look in different arrangements (left)  You can't really tell from the photographs, but they are so sparkly, hints of fine glitter and small crystals all over...I like how they turned out, but I sure am glad they are done.  I was starting to feel like a slave to my Orion Slave paintings!

After finishing up the Orion Slave girls I moved on to my next project...re-doing my June self portrait, which I had kind of already completed.  I posted a graphite/watercolor drawing earlier this month (June 22nd) that I had completed based on one of my 'angel pics' from our recent trip to San Diego.  I liked the concept, but was not 100% on how the finished piece came out.  I think I will revisit this image, and I will also revisit the idea of using some digital magic to play around with the idea of the 'picture inside of the picture'...but I just wasn't satisfied with this as my June self portait.

So...around 10pm (?)  I started a new piece.  My concept was to draw myself looking into a mirror, and the image of me in the mirror to show a little of Bettie's sassiness  that I have been drawing and painting all month.  I also wanted to work with the materials that I used all month; graphite and watercolor.  So I did.  

Jumped up on Jessie's bathroom counter with my camera, started taking pics, had Jen help take pics...and just started the piece.  Now that I have gotten over the idea that my self portraits will not all be the same size (last month I went larger and with a different shape in my monochromatic portrait) I was more comfortable with a piece on 18x24 Bristol.  I was a little nervous that I would not be able to complete this larger size, but I did.  I used the techniques that I worked with all month, and the work just happened.  The homage to Bettie in the piece is the red lips, other than that it is a fairly straightforward portrait. 

And now... I am pretty exhausted, but I did take a peek at the theme for July...it's 'round'.

I don't know what I am going to do.

No idea.  I guess I will sleep on it, maybe something will come to me.  In the meantime, here are some pics from our 'art night'.  

I told myself all day...'yeah, you should be sitting down, but you will make up for it when camp is over and you and go home and elevate your leg.'

See, before I went to sleep last night I had what I thought was a brilliant idea, inspired by one of the masters, Michelangelo.

'Why, I will just suspend my painting between two chairs and lie on my back and paint.  Just like Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel.'

Oh geez, what was I thinking?  Michelangelo- how did you do this?

My arms started to ache after an hour...I guess that was the worst of it.  No paint in my eyes, I had some glasses to protect 'em.  But reaching for my colors, especially trying to mix pigments, and ward off the cats...sigh.  Seemed like a good idea at the time. 

Then I figured it out. Caravaggio's Medusa, circa 1596. Now that I have seen it, I can't 'unsee' it.  But I went forward with the posting to my CED Blog rather that toss it to the 'Bettie Mishap' pile.  Sigh.  Sorry Bettie.