Support the Artists to Support the Arts - The Consortium

Painting

About six weeks ago, I began painting what was to be a three-piece series of unconventional self-portraits as a challenge to my own artistic skill. Oil painting is one of my great joys in life; still, my written art usually takes precedence over my visual art, so I suppose I’m slow (by some standards) in completing a visual piece. When Aaron sent me the detailed description of the first painting he’s commissioning from me, I was about 1/3 finished with my first self-portrait.

Since I had promised Aaron that his cover art would be one of my main summer projects, and since I made that promise before embarking upon my adventures in self-portraiture, I am putting the portrait project on hold until further notice. This past week, I completed my painting-in-progress, thereby freeing my easel to receive the canvas upon which Aaron’s Taming Fire cover art will find its visual expression.

Or, rather, gessoed artboard instead of canvas. I have a specific type and size of board in mind. This past week, in a conveniently located arts and crafts supply store, I found the right kind of board in all the wrong sizes. Since I haven’t had time to visit a less conveniently located store, my easel is still waiting.

In the meantime, I had several fruitful electronic conversations with Julie about the artwork for Julie V. Photography. We’ve decided that we should postpone most art-related decisions until we can have a face-to-face artsy pow-wow when she and Carlos come to visit — which will be soon! Until then, she has put together some fabulous sample site pages that I cannot wait to see go live.

Writing

In Tapped Out this week, The Hero suffered heartache, rejoiced in hope, thrilled to danger, and celebrated his successful liberation of The Distressed Damsel from the clutches of her Wicked Husband-To-Be. All is going swimmingly in fairyland, and this week’s writing shall bring the discovery of some Unexpected Companions — which is also the title of Chapter Seven, to be finished before the next “Courtney Corner.”