Weekly Wrap-Up

Things are winding down at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art, but they aren’t slowing down.  Everyone is working hard to finish paintings and get ready for the end of term party/exhibition next Friday.  If you’re in Vienna, it promises to be a great evening.

Here’s where I’m at with the two paintings I started back in September.

I spent most of the day on Friday colouring the spirals and sigil on “Co-Creative Bliss”.  To learn more about this painting, refer to my previous post.  I can’t express with words what a useful tool 3D glasses are.  As I painted, I went from one colour to the next on the colour wheel, both for the lines of energy in the God Hand and also in the energy flowing between the hands.  With the glasses, I could see how my choices created spirals that not only dropped back or stood out, but also their various angles. Very cool!  And when I got lazy and fudged the colour sequence because I’d forgotten a spot, I could see that there was a clear break – half the spiral was in the foreground and the other far behind, cut off from it’s source… that just wouldn’t do! The advantage of oils is you can wipe it off and start over – lesson learned.  I don’t know if anyone has the ability to see this way naturally, but it sure has taught me visually what I’ve been hearing for years – warm colours come forward and cool colours recede. Using them in sequence helps move things forward and backward gradually.  Fascinating! I’m almost done this one.  Note: This piece is tricking the camera either visually or energetically 🙂  – it’s very hard to photograph – colours may be different than on your screen.

with room lighting

in daylight

As for my self portrait (still unnamed), Timea is helping me restyle the angel’s hair.  I had created quite a 70s feathered shag- a colourful chaotic mop that distracted the eye.  We applied dark tempera and an oil glaze and will continue reshaping it next week when his hair dries 🙂 I like it darker – Next week I’ll restyle it in white casein and glaze it in blue.  I also added reflected lighting on the back of his thigh and back – an important element of dimension. Can you see the difference?

as is now

We didn’t have any yoga or live figure drawing this week, but we were fortunate to have two great lectures in 2 weeks.

We also had a follow-up demonstration by Benedetto Fellin on how to paint a smoothly gradient sky reflected on the ground for the poetic landscape piece.  I’ve worked on the practice one, but chose not to do an original composition because of time constraints.

I promise to show you more of my classmates’ work next week – I was pretty focused on my own this week.

Apart from that, I’ve submitted my taxes – a month-long process (with occasional procrastination – this week’s evening YouTube movie theme was the life and works of Jane Austen). What a relief (about both the taxes and having been born – in this lifetime anyway – in our modern world, where being a female artist / entrepreneur is much easier)! By the way, I really recommend Turbo Tax (got a discount through TD bank’s website).  I’ve been using their online services for over a decade – easy interview questions that guide you through the process – important for me as a self-employed artist.  This year was a bit complicated with my fundraising and being here in Vienna, so I was so very grateful for their live text chat with a tax expert feature – I went from owing a little over $500 to getting back almost $300  – a perceived savings of $800… not bad!

This weekend, I’m packing up my apartment so that I can bring some of my stuff to Laurence & Florence’s for when I’m away in Bali. When I come back, I’ll be moving into a different apartment in the same student residence – my 3rd in 10 months.  This is an opportunity to de-clutter and organize yet again, but it’s also showing me that I’m not as good at simple living as I’d like to be… I’ve been thinking a lot about that – first, because I think too much, but also because I’m in the process of writing an article on simple living for Think Different, Feel Different.  I’ll also be teaching a workshop on that again and one on developing intuition in Salmonier, NL at a Body, Mind & Spirit Retreat in November, so I need to prepare a write-up this weekend for that too.  Between all that and my e-course on the business of art, I don’t think I’ll get a long hike in this weekend. That’s OK – there’s strong wind and rain in the forecast.  Next weekend, I’ll head to the Czech Republic to visit my friends for a few days – a perfect way to end the trimester.  By then, the weather forecast is for 22 degrees (50F) – let’s hope it stays that way as I’ll only have lighter clothing left to wear for the next 2 weeks!

Have a great weekend, wherever you are and whatever the weather!