A blast from the past

Pour Your Heart Out To Me - currently available at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/

This is an older abstract I made in 1999/2000 that I've just listed in my Etsy shop in my summer clearance sale. Looking at this painting, all of the emotions and energy of that era come flooding back to me. Soul searching, confused, curious, passionate, questioning everything under the sun, trying to define myself, my love, the love of others. I guess I'm still doing all of those things to a certain extent but it certainly isn't my "full time job" anymore! Comparing now and then, I feel like I'm more comfortable in the present moment. Just being. Less bouncing off of my own internal walls constantly. Ahhhhh - what a relief!

Speaking of the present moment, I'm still plotting and planning away for my autumn unveiling of more streamlined shops and product lines. It's fun getting all of your ideas out there, then shuffling through them and making sense of them from a "big picture" perspective. It's an artform in itself. What are you currently working on?

(happy 4th of July if I don't post again for a few days!)

I take that back - Finished.

Patchwork Bliss
Acrylic on 30" x 40" canvas
Available in my Etsy Shop - HERE

Ok. I got my wish for more sun and looking at this painting with fresh eyes I knew - I'm done. If I added just one more block of color, I'd *need* to add a whole new layer. I'd end up losing some of those first layers that are still present in places, and those are some of my favorite "moments" in the painting. So - finis!

I also took a drive out to West Hartford to Jerry's Artarama to get a bunch of new supplies. Since most of the people that read this blog are fellow artists, y'all KNOW how great it feels to get a batch of supplies! It's kind of.... delicious. That feeling plus a cup of coffee (I'm usually a tea drinker so coffee to me = ZING!) has me in a pumped up and sort of spazzy mood. Ready to rock more canvas with my lovely new set of paint. I've got a commission to begin, and that is going to be a lot of fun. I estimated production time to take about 2-3 weeks, but I have a feeling it will be a matter of days. I'm just really excited to jump into this one. Speaking of.... the sun is out and I'm going to go paint! Have a great day....

JT

More painterly sketches

Happy Day
Acrylic on watercolor paper, 2008

Tempted

Acrylic on watercolor paper, 2008.

Face of a Friend
Acrylic on watercolor paper, 2008

Alternate Landscape
Acrylic and oil pastel on watercolor paper, 2008.

All available original art and prints at www.livefunky.etsy.com

Back on Track

What Are You Thinking?
Original acrylic on 8 x 10 canvas panel, 2008.

Bits and Pieces and The Path

Original acrylic on 8 x 10 canvas panel, 2008.

After a long break from painting, I'm back to the brush. The colors in these two paintings are inspired by this spring feeling I have inside (not quite outside yet, but it's coming). Even just seeing the tips of green from my irises starting to poke up makes my soul sing. I'll be painting for the rest of the day, so hopefully I'll have more to share by this evening.

All available artwork at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/

Spring Thinking

Spring Thinking

Acrylic on 5 x 7 canvas panel, 2008

Available at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/

A few updates

First off, I'm officially declaring 365 Sketch is a great idea, but it just isn't going to work for me, at least not right now. I've got so many things I want to get done in a day, I feel like even if I participate, it will just be something I throw together because "I have to". That isn't the spirit of that flickr group, so I'd be doing a disservice to everyone else participating as well as myself. I think it is hilarious that I only got to 7 days. I guess it just wasn't meant to be for right now - maybe in the future it will fit right into my creative patterns.

Onto other updates.... you may have noticed that I used to have a ton of prints in my shop and then they all of a sudden disappeared. I decided that I'm only going to offer prints on Etsy of paintings that have sold because otherwise it can be a little confusing to look through and see the same pics coming up for prints and originals. I am listing each print as having 10 available and once those sell out, I probably won't renew the listing to keep things fresh in my shop. This doesn't make them limited editions, just "limited to Etsy"!

New Paintings

Wandering Dreams - original triptych by Jessica Torrant

Acrylic on three 5" x 7" canvas panels, 2007

Now available at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/

The other night I got some new supplies and today was the first day in a while that I got to do what I love - PAINT!!!! Don't get me wrong, it's fun playing with Illustrator, but painting is my true love, it always will be and that's just the end of it. :)

I started by opening up my brand new pack of canvas panels. They are packaged in threes and it just felt natural to lay them out before me and begin to create a composition using all of them. The tradition of painting triptychs is ancient, and it's always interesting to me how this translates across time into and beyond modernism. It works. Because as we all know, three is the magic number! :)

I am eager to get back to work, but this was the first set I finished so I had to post it here and on Etsy ASAP. Back to painting I go! I'll post more as they are completed.

New big paintings on Etsy!

The Question
24" x 36" acrylic on canvas, 2006
Available at www.livefunky.etsy.com

Today I listed a bunch of paintings on Etsy that I scooped up from my studio in Indian Orchard. These pieces have only been seen at our open studio shows, and I'm excited to share them with my online community finally! I didn't do any painting today (just listing on Etsy), but I did a lot of thinking about painting.... we'll see how that manifests itself tomorrow in the studio.

I Think It Is Done

As you can see, I got back into the commissioned painting today (see yesterday's post below for a "before" picture). I worked in more translucent layers of color mixed with a glazing medium applied with a dry brush. A lot got scrubbed off with my hands or scratched at with the ends of brushes and my fingers. I'm happy with the more layered effects of color and texture now.

This was an interesting experience, and GREAT first painting to do in the studio. It came with new challenges, and therefore new learned techniques and observations. I've done commissioned paintings based on previous works before but there were differences. For example, one was a large, painted canvas based on an ink drawing. The drawing was translated first onto the canvas, then after that, the painting took on it's own life. Another commission was for two large canvases in the style of one of my paintings called Ribbon Candy. Again, translating to such a huge scale based on an 8" x 10" concept took on it's own life, too. One more story (not to bore you here) was when I recreated Freedom for a commission. That was a drip painting, so there was only the decisions of what colors to mix and where to swipe my wide, wet brush that I had control over.

This time I had a print out of the original painting in front of me and I referred to it the whole way through. At one point I asked myself if this was even what the client wanted, but I knew that she was open to whatever the painting "became" so I went with my gut and kept looking.... and attempting to recreate. By last night I was pretty close to the original but that spark was missing. Today I came in and responded to the painting in front of me more than the printout. I let each space speak for itself - maybe it needed more green, or to merge with the "box" next to it - in each case I let those moments either be or change based on instinct, not what was in the original, which was what needed to happen to make this painting come alive. At least I think so,,, what do you think?