Playing With Pyramids

Untitled

I must ask myself, what is this?

And, I must say to myself "Beats me!"

I had this notion I wanted to play around with geometric designs. I marched myself over to Michael's and bot some French Curves, templates for this and that and a compass.

I went right home and drew some triangles on a canvas, the three you see in the painting, and promptly put the canvas aside. When I came back to it I looked at those triangles and thought "What the heck am I going to do with this?" That became the exercise and the above became the painting.

The triangles became pyramids in my mind. The two triangles in the sky show the sun and the moon. Pyramids are thought to be very powerful designs. I have always thought it was interesting that the western indian nations designed their homes in the shape of pyramids. Many tribes have legends about gods coming down from the skies. The Sioux refer to Star People in their legends and songs. In my mind it somehow all ties together.

Art critics will tell me I committed a cardinal sin by placing the teepee smack dab in the center. All I can say is, it wasn't a teepee when I put it there. It was a triangle and then it was a pyramid and then it was a teepee. I think of it as a power center so being in the center is precisely where it should be.

The little fetishes resting in the grass are buffalo.

And, as always, I just love the colors!

If anyone seeing this would like to take a stab at naming it that would be great. Just leave it in the comments.

Walker

Aztec

Aztec

As so often happens I started this painting with an entirely different destination in mind. It took me so long to finish it I have completely forgotten my original idea.

The main thing is this piece gave me a great opportunity to find the right brushes for detail work. I have watched any number of You Tube tutorials and notice that different instructors favor different brushes for the same effect. I've also noticed that the sizes of the brushes don't always seem to jive.

As usual I've decided to figure out what's best for me through trial and error. I recently watched a video in which the instructor revealed her "secret" tip for painting fine lines, an angled flat brush. I was quite excited. But, it sure didn't work for me. Through this exercise I have stumble upon a small filbert that gets the job done for me.

The geometric designs were another experiment and practice.

I call this guy Aztec but maybe he's a Martian that came "Through the Looking Glass"?

Walker

Geometric Oops!

Geometric Oops

For some reason I took it into my head I wanted to do some geometric designs. Horses have been on my mind a lot lately so I thought about a saddle blanket. Western saddle blankets have some awesome geometric designs.

About half way through I realized the error of my ways. If I'd wanted something to resemble a saddle blanket or maybe even a place mat I would have had to paint the designs on the horizontal not the vertical. LOL! A lesson learned for next time.

I also learned it is darned hard to paint straight lines free hand. Honestly, I don't know how people do it. After the first line up at the top it occurred to me that taping the lines would help. But, the other designs, egads! Indians painting on cave walls did better.

Even though this kind of painting vexes me no end I should probably make myself do it every now and again. It requires discipline and patience. When it comes to my painting I prefer the flourish to flourish.   

As usual this painting is just my latest mistake. And, as usual, I love it! Heaven help me I love color!

For more of my painting boo boos click here.

Walker