Sunlit Creatures

Sunlit Creatures • Oil on Panel • 9 in x 12 in

I have become a superstitious person. I'm not sure when it happened, but I think I  have finally hit the painting sweet spot and am feeling pretty darn good about it. So.... right now, I think I need to wait to post things until they are finished. Irrational jinxing fear, I know, but with only a few months left, I'll do all I can to appease the painting gods. The good news is that I've been pumping out work continuously this month, so I'll have more things to put up soon. You just wait!

This painting was a pleasure once I got into it. I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed painting the natural elements. Usually, I am a figure girl and the background is not nearly as interesting to me as the main subject. I will often knock out the figures first and then labor over the background. This time, I worked on the "Laura" figure on the right, and then the background and then went back and forth between Cameron and the background until done. The last step was tweaking the figures. 


I am CRAZY about how the wooded background and creek bed turned out. What a joy to paint! It gives me a little thrill whenever I look at it. 


"Sunlit Creatures" was worked on while listening to "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaimen almost exclusively.

By the way, I did not do a good job photographing this little painting - it looks wayyy better in person. Come see it on February 10th in Bay Village, Ohio!