I come from the land of The Bezzies
There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of these silly little characters alive & dancing in my head atm. They’re banging loudly on the bars of their cage, begging me to let them come out to play.
I tell them not to worry about it. They’ll each get their turn. I’m in no rush to end this series any time soon.
Hiding away in my pretend cartoony world is my way of escaping from the real world these days. When someone asks me where I’m from, I want to say I come from the land of The Bezzies. I’m finding it harder to relate to planet earth with each passing day.
I might be switching back to gouache soon, tho. I don’t remember the last time I picked up a paint brush, and I’m starting to miss it.
The world is filled with profound beauty and tragedy, and it is through art that we can reconcile these contradictions.
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Reading:
A Tribute to Donald Baechler (1956–2022) I ran across his painting titled Painting With Two Balls again recently, and loved it so much I went down a rabbit hole searching for more of his artwork. I didn’t find too much about him, but this tribute to him was nice.
Watching:
Sloths Are Slow For A Reason - aww! I want a pet sloth. 💗
Speaking of aww, I just found the aww! subreddit. I’m addicted already, and I do find myself saying “aww” out loud while I’m scrolling.
These Oil Pastels Made Me CRASHOUT! Trying Winsor & Newton Oil Pastels! - Christian might not have liked the pastels, but wow, the art he made is stunning. That, and he made me LMAO as usual. He’s sooo funny. 🤣
I wanted to try some oil drawing sticks after watching Sandi Hester’s video, but I’m afraid they’re priced waaay out of my budget. Wow! Almost $200 for only 12?!! I either need to raise my prices, sell a kidney or stick with more affordable oil pastels. I would try making my own, but after Googling and seeing many artists say it’s not worth the cost or time involved, I won’t be doing that. I guess that explains why they’re so expensive. Oh, well. Maybe some day?
I’m still going down a Maud Lewis rabbit hole, what can I say? I love her art.
Maud Lewis Interview, Making and Selling Paintings (1965) - art supplies have always been expensive, even back in 1965. I wonder what Maud would think of the drawing stick prices these days.
You can read more about Maud on Wikipedia
My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, Etsy, and eBay.
You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.
I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.
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Thank you for the cat and dog pictures 😍 They cheer me up as much as your portrait paintings.