Whispering Buddha

 Yesterday, I sat before the easel with an empty little canvas panel to give brush strokes the freedom to create a design from within. It could have become anything it wanted, yet what my inner self chose to portray was a serene image of the Buddha; I like that just fine. The canvas size is just a wee 4" by 5".

Whispering Buddha, by Tree Pruitt

I began with a pale parchment colored acrylic paint in lazy crossed strokes with a half inch paintbrush. The design has no symmetry, with everything being slightly out of balance to add the feeling of motion when standing in front of the painting; This also expresses the spiritual concept of individual portions creating a balanced whole. I moved to using Titanium White paint, without wiping the brush, and picked up a tiny bit of Thalo Blue (blue shade) to allow natural mixing. Using smaller brushes, I added a tiny bit of Purple and acrylic gel medium for blending. Areas of acrylic paint that do not have gel medium added will drag and sort of pull on a brush loaded with straight acrylic paint. Adding a bit of the gel medium will make the paint slide over previous layers and more translucent, depending on the amount used. The slight shade of yellow to the Parchment color mixed well with Titanium White and the Thalo Blue to create a soft Blue-Green Turquoise for the deepest shadow areas. To play off of that Blue-Green, and add some more warmth, I used a touch of Cadmium Red for the bindi spot over the third eye, and softer still in the cheek bone shadows. Thick strokes of Titanium White add a further sense of motion and greater depth overall for a small painting that glow from all the way across the room.

It's been terribly difficult for me to capture the brightness of this painting in a photograph. This is one of those pieces that really does look better in person. Perhaps I'll try shooting again on a day with better light. I really enjoyed painting in these subtle tones though, so I will likely continue despite having a hard time showing them to you at best.

Visit my Fine Art store for this and other new paintings.

*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use or for purchase information.

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Purple Poppies Painting Method

Purple Poppies is an original small floral painting from acrylic paint and watercolor pencil. Loosely rendered purple poppy flowers and buds, in various states of open, rest in a sunny flowing landscape created by carefully controlled drips and thick wet brush strokes of paint. The composition was first sketched in with watercolor pencils. For this method I prefer using Faber-Castell's Albrecht Durer pencils because of the smooth flowing texture of the lead, which is a bit softer than other brands, and the rich pigments; In particular, a certain blue and an orange will stain a canvas and won't rinse totally away with water washes. I apply heavy wet strokes of acrylic paint, allowing the brush to dig slightly into the watercolor under-drawing. Then added drops of water will naturally follow a path through the thick paint to the watercolor, creating drips that cut through layers while coloring the exposed canvas surface underneath. When thinned acrylic paint dries it can often look chalky, but it's easy to remedy the lifeless surface with a coat of acrylic varnish (I use Liquitex brands) which brings out a glossy richness. It's an exciting, fast paced way to paint that always yields results with character.

"Purple Poppies", 5"x 7" canvas panel board.

This somewhat rare flower was historically used in hallucinogenic rituals by the "Minoan" civilization on Crete and represents the Greek God Morpheus, overseer of visions and dreams.




*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use or for purchase information.

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Contemporary Obama

When I finished this small portrait painting of the US President I wondered about the expressions it may reveal to individual viewers. Introspection aside, I enjoy painting and drawing faces in this Cubist sort of style because of the expressive tension it seems to offer. This new piece is painted in artist quality acrylics on a four inch by five inch canvas board. Warm, rich colors create the face while the ebony hair holds a touch of cool grey for a painting dynamic enough to speak out from a small size format. Signed as ,"Tree" in the lower right corner.

*The original painting is no longer available, but please check my links for print options.

 Geometric Cubism applied to a portrait of the United States President Barack Obama. Original 4" x 5" acrylic paint on unframed canvas board, by Tree Pruitt.


*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use or for purchase information.

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Empty Faithful Painting

Empty Faithful, or Inanis Fidelia, is a 16 by 20 inch acrylic painting still life on thick gallery wrapped canvas just off of the easel. The thickness of the canvas support helps lend a feeling of depth to the three vases on a corner cabinet shelf.

Click image to open a larger version for viewing.

An image of an empty vase in iconography represents the human soul awaiting to be filled with spiritual energy and enlightenment, or assention even, and here the qualities of stoneware is a reflection of souls who have passed on returned to the Earth for a rebirthing of the Spirit. The title of the painting is written on the back side in both English and Latin too as, Inanis Fidelia. "Inanis" is the empty void of soul. The word "fidelia" means an earthenware pot or vase; I have perhaps taken artistic liscence in joining these words to fit my need. This painting has a great deal of texture and subtle color varitation that was hard to capture in a photograph, but I do hope visitors here will enjoy viewing it and the new owner will cherish the painting in her home.

-- Tree

Above; a closer view.

The above image shows the canvas edges that are thick and painted to resemble the rustic display cabinet that is holding the vases.    

*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use or for purchase information.

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Crafting Spring

With all the hustle and bustle of Spring it's hard to devote focus to a full painting, so I find myself drawing or enjoying crafts more often. Here I'll share a few of the projects about to come out of the studio. First is a small decorative wood plaque. I've woodburned a sun moon design on this natural colored oval, then coated it with durable varathane varnish. I still haven't decided whether to put a saw tooth hanger on the back so it can be hung on the wall or felted bumpers so that it can be used like a altar tile trivet.

 

Next projects I've finished are two pencil boxes. Both are a mix of collage, paint and drawing. I had a lot of fun putting these together and am looking forward to getting them together as "kits". Alice in Wonderland uses copies of the original illustrations by John Tennial with hand painted touches over the paper, and various other Victorian style images. Black and white images yet colorful overall. I'm thinking about making some mushroom shaped pages of paper to include and posting it to Etsy as a creative writing or poets kit.

The second pencil box was inspired by the concept of the "writer's block". It features an image of Oscar Wilde decked out in decadent Victorian finery, a ghostly faint image of Edgar Allen Poe, and a William Blake character stressing out below. Throughout the block of the box are actual words and phrases from a book about how to write and cheeky illustrations having to due with inspiration; such as a man with a light bulb over his head. When listed on Etsy, this Writer's Block Box will include special papers and some additional items that might spark up the imagination of a writer to get that block busted.

All of these items are one of a kind, though the celestial design does match a spirit talking board I've yet to finish. They'll soon be available in my Etsy Curio Castle Shoppe. Hope you enjoyed previewing them!

 

*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use or for purchase information.

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New Necklaces with Old Charm

I simply LOVE to collect trinket and little things! I started collecting boxes to put the little things inside of, so I obviously had an excess of tiny treasure. I began to choose items that seemed to group together by a theme or era, and it was only a matter of time before the call of jewelry convinced me it was time to craft some charm necklaces. It's trash to treasure assemblage art with a mix of re-claimed jewelry, genuine antiques and weird collectibles. The most recent addition to the charming collection of different pieces I've made is shown below, and I just think it's great fun!

Edwardian Butterfly Five Necklace

This necklace is about the shift from old ways to the new; effects of change brought on flapping wings of the proverbial butterfly in Peking scenario. The Edwardian style broadly encompasses the years of 1901 through 1919, as do most of the parts of this necklace. In America this era was known as the Gilded or Progressive Age. The start of the 1900's brought the dawning of a new age with a new attitude toward life, social change and tremendous technological advances around the world. The key to the future is hindsight upon the past, so I've included a skeleton key from the early Victorian era, which preceded the Edwardian period. Nature elements also contrast with the industrial in this necklace, but at the center of it all is a pub token because amidst it all we've got to remember to relax! This necklace invites the wearer to toy with the charms, sparking the imagination to create a story all their own.

Steampunk Magic Charms Handmade Necklace

Old Steampunk Charm Handmade Long Collar Necklace

I hope you'll enjoy browsing my handmade jewelry as much as I enjoy crafting the pieces!
Shop at: http://www.artisttree.artfire.com/ 

 

*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated.

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