Visuddha

"A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings.  Alone must it seek the ether.

And alone without his nest shall the eagle cross the sun."
                                                 -- Khalil Gibran

Visuddha, the Throat Chakra, is the chakra of communication, of expression, of honesty (with yourself and with others), of your declaration of your place in the world.  It is associated with the color blue the element Ether, and the expression of your highest truth.

I think this is my favorite so far, which is interesting because it's the one I have the most difficulty keeping open and healthy... I'm pretty quiet and reserved.  It's funny too because the stones I am most drawn to are the ones that are blue and associated with the throat chakra.

I managed to steal a few minutes from a very busy weekend to get this one painted, and I have the panels for the last two ordered.  They should be here in a few days, hopefully :)

Anahata

"When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object."  -- Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Anahata is the heart chakra.  It is the source of peace, love, brotherhood and joy.  When your heart chakra is open, it seems that all the world is a place of love and joy.

I've painted the 12-petaled Anahata in oil and outlined it in henna impasto.  I think the dots around the petals are a nice, henna-esque touch, personally.  The picture below is kind of awful but you get the idea... they're shaping up. :)   Still don't know how I'll mount them.  I had an idea to make a stone background with crystals (stone chips)  that correspond (like, garnet for root, carnelian for sacral, etc).  Kind of a marrying of my 2 crafts.  Still not sure if that's what I'll do.  Russ says I should paint a silhouette of a meditating person and mount them on that.  Hmm.

Unfortunately after the Throat Chakra, which I roughed in today, I'm out of 4x4 panels.  I just ordered some but I picked the slow shipping so it might be 2 weeks before they get here and I can finish the last 2.  Argh... I'm in a groove and I hate to leave these unfinished, so... what next?

I have an idea I'd like to try some realistic paintings but with a henna'ed border/frame on the edge of the panel, so I might try that... plus I have A and B to finish up, but I'm petering out on those, not sure why.  Honestly I could call the Appy done and move on.  I hate being indecisive and wishy washy.

Manipura

"Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
Which we ascribe to heaven."
                    -- William Shakespeare (All's Well that Ends Well)

Manipura is the solar plexus or navel chakra, the third energy center in the body.  It is involved with creative energy, self worth, identity, and associated with the color yellow and fire.  

This makes my third in this series; I did Muladhara (root) yesterday and Svadhisthana (sacral) several weeks ago.  They're painted in oil on these nice little panels and then the raised portion of the design (the outline) is done in my signature "henna impasto" technique.  I'm not sure if you can tell that the "henna" is sparkly on this one (and the root), but I used no paint for this one, just PearlEx powder and impasto gel.

I thought to leave them to be hung separately but unfortunately I painted the one last night sideways for the nail slot, so... darnit.  I'll either need to put hangers on the back or mount all of them on masonite or something.  If you've got any ideas for mounting I'd love to hear them :)

I'm hoping to also finish up my little Appaloosa today, too.  I have the next 2 chakras in the series base coated.  Unfortunately I'm out of panels after that so I'll have to order some more.  

Change of Plans

I'm so unpredictable. Even to myself.

I had this cool idea for "Camargue" for C. But that wasn't what the muse wanted."C" is for "change of plans."

You might also have noticed that "A" is for aaaaallllmost done (it still needs some finishing touches) and "B" is for "barely started."

But one does not disobey the muse.  So rather than Camargue, "C" is for Chakras.

So, today I had loads of day job work to do, so I didn't get to the studio until pretty late.  I had this idea a month or two ago and got started, then petered out (imagine that!).  But this is what I felt like doing tonight. These are the symbols for the first two chakras, the root chakra (Muladhara) and sacral chakra (Svadihsthana).  "Chakra" is Sanskrit for wheels of light.  They are the energy centers in your body and you have many, but there are seven primary ones, each corresponding to a color of the spectrum.  I have seen really cool chakra flags (if you follow my chainmaille at all you might already know I just love rainbows).  But I wanted to do some paintings.  So, these are 4 x 4 little panels - with a place for a nail in the back, I was happy to see - and so far I have 5 so I need a couple more.  I had done the orange/sacral one when I started this project, and base coated the first 3.  So today I finished the red/root chakra and base coated the green one.  They're oil painted backgrounds with my signature "henna impasto" - I load paint thickened with impasto gel into the same kind of cone I use when I do henna, and pipe it onto the canvas with the cone.  It's quite fun, actually.  I think I might be getting a better handle on the consistency, too.

So, yay!  Who knows where the muse will take me tomorrow.  The key is to show up at the studio.

Don't Wanna...

Busy day... Work to do, horses to play with, allergy shots to get stuck with. Finally had some quiet time this evening and then I didn't wanna paint!

So I worked on this.

It's not done yet, but it's time consuming. The black is all watercolor except those tiny spirals, which had to be inked.

B is for...

 ... Barrel racer!

Since I couldn't put the finishing touches on my little Appaloosa baby (I painted on it yesterday evening so the layer isn't dry yet), I took the next step with my "B" painting, roughing in horse, rider and barrel.

So here's the scoop on this brave little rider.  Mahala is seven and she has Down's syndrome.  Thing is, that doesn't matter one bit to her buddies Dusty, Rainey and Grits (this is Grits).  Mahala competes in barrel racing and has quite a few wins under her belt. 

There's another picture of Mahala telling Rainey secrets that I want to paint another time, but for now I thought I'd paint her doing what she loves... going fast!

This is 16x20 so it might take me a bit to finish it and get on to C (darnit that one's not little either... D and E will be though, I have them planned at least that far). 

I'll finish up the little Appy tomorrow and maybe work on this some more, and I'll tell you about why Mahala is such a huge inspiration to me.

Here's a quote from Mahala's Facebook page that mom  (which you should be a fan of because she's awesome):  "I may not do things just like everyone else, and it may take a little longer for me, but I CAN do them. Besides what does it matter how long it takes?? We get in too big a hurry in life anyway and forget to LIVE!!!!!"

Ride on girl!

Apple-oosa

Does it look like an appy yet? Well, he is just a baby.

Painting time has been practically nonexistent toward the end of last week, with the usual crazy busy weekend, and today my hubby is home with a kidney stone (ugh, again... poor guy) and I had to go to Cookeville to get my CSA produce and run some other errands.  BUT, I sneaked in some painting time this evening, yay!  Only I didn't have time to go see my horses.  Seems like I get one or the other.

I think this guy is one session from being done.  What do you think of the background this way?