helvi smith
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Podorama!

2/28/2014

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I did a "pod" series.    I have several shows coming up and needed a little something different.   
So, pods, it is!
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Art with a Bad Taste.

2/22/2014

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I cut of a big piece of canvas and put it on my work table and my intention was to make a big random background that I would paint over, and just reveal "bits" of it under the next layer.
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I took out some templates that I had carved a few years ago and filled up the canvas.
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OK.   Maybe a very abstract bird on top of that.  Then some, uh, bars, yeah, like the idea of a bird cage on top of that!   Oh!  I was going full steam ahead now!

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Ewww. 


 That looked like crap. 
 
  Bad bad idea on top of
 horrible color choices. 


   I went home for the night, 
thinking that perhaps in the
 morning it would look better.

Nope.


Still crap.


Well, the price on the canvas I buy has more than 

doubled, so no wasting it allowed. 

So how to make it better?


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I cut the canvas in half - cause there was just TOO much ugly to look at. 
 
 Sometimes, I can almost taste when colors and patterns don't jive and that one was like something from the forgotten reaches in the back of the fridge. 
 It was
 N A S T Y.   

I painted some flower 

pod things on top of it.

Getting better….


Like some mouthwash after barfing.
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Here's the two halves.  

 I painted the background green to cover most of the icky colors and let just a shadow of them show through.  


 I was liking this and could hardly wait to paint the other half!


I will post a photo when I get 

to the studio today.

They came out great.
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Love Birds.

2/13/2014

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My goal for 2013 was to get into a 
Portland art gallery.
At 10:30pm on December 31st, I received an email from a Portland gallery asking if I wanted to be represented by them.
HELLO!
Yes!
Don't you just LOVE that??
I am taking art tomorrow to 
Love Art Gallery in Portland!


I painted some "Love Birds" this week for Love Art Gallery.

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I had a spin-art-wheel when I was a kid and this technique I was playing with reminded me of that.
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 I loved how the colors bled 
into each other.
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I am still not finished - but there will be a calm white bird on that 
spiral crazed background!



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I got snowbound for almost 6 days and could hardly wait to get to my studio to PAINT!  
This is what happened when I got 
back to painting. 
Big - about 4' tall and will be about 2 1/2 foot wide when stretched.  
Whew! 
I feel much better now!
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Where have all the flowers gone

2/1/2014

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Springtime is right around the corner and I have been painting up a plethora of flowers and birds!
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This is an iPad painting that I painted - then used the Snapseed app to put a "frame" around it - then used an app called, "Walnut" to put in on a stock photo wall. 
I liked it!
But…. could I paint it for real?
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I am always in a hurry as evidenced by the paint splattered blow dryer.  
I usually lay a piece of canvas flat on my worktable.  Then when it is done, I lay it flat on the stack of "done" paintings and it takes very little room to store them.
I buy wood at the lumber yard and I have a friend who will cut and measure ( all skills that I have none of) and she will then stretch the canvas around the wood and bring me back a painting that is ready to go!   
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I think it worked out well. 
 This is the second one in this series.
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Like eating potato chips.  
 Can't stop at just one.  
 Or two….

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