Hey, it’s a Hobbit reference. And I have not seen one of those films. Despite being slightly fanatical about the Lord of the Rings, both the books and the movies, (less than Colbert, more than your average fan).

I am embarking on a project which I thought I would chronicle here, at the art blog. I was asked about a year ago to do some Day of the Dead type faces on Patrón (tequila) corks. How we arrived at this request is probably not as interesting, but suffice it to say I agreed to this thing with the caveat that I would probably take my own sweet time. Which I have.

But I am going to be seeing this person in about a week so I thought, since I finally cleared a space to do acrylics again – for Thirty Paintings in 30 Days, in January – I decided now was the time. Here is the beginning.

Patrón Corks Project, Step One!

At the bottom left you will see an unaltered Patrón  cork. In the middle, two corks with gesso. The third thing is some other cork that looks like a doorknob, also gessoed. Stay tuned for further developments!

I also wanted to post, in advance of January’s marathon, my favorite acrylic paintings from last January (and some from February). I stopped painting after that. I think because my job got busier but I hope to continue this year.

Various Acrylics, Jan-Feb 2014

Left to rightt:  Danielle and Sinbad (6″x6″), Flower Girl (5″x7″), Josie Fuchsia (5″x7″), The Harvest Oracle (6″ x 8″). Loads of process pics for The Harvest Oracle here.

And below, Rocco and Harmony (12″ x 12″), which hung for several months at my local Dick Blick’s! Here you can see what they looked like at the end of the first day, and then the finished painting with one more day. Amazing how much difference the extra day made!

Rocco and Harmony, 12″ x 12″ Acrylics on canvas

Lots of progress pics for this one here. Thanks so much for dropping in! Hello to Paint Party Friday – and I sure hope some of you are doing 30 Paintings!

Merry Christmas and Happy all the other holidays, too!