Attagirl

Well here she is! I enjoyed the idea of setting myself a deadline, that's one way to quit staring at a blank canvas and actually get working on it. She was finished late yesterday afternoon, but there was no place for me to snap a picture as it was dark and pouring cats and dogs here in Georgia!

Attagirl is 20" square on a wrap around canvas, this is one of the very few times I kept the dress similar to it's original color, but the Wedgwood blue seemed to fit the composition. The "voice" for this piece came as I was walking between the studio and the house. Walking past the dogwood tree, a little chickadee started to holler at me for getting too close to the bird feeder. The whole idea of how nature pushes through, with trees setting buds in the cold of winter, and the tiniest birds surviving the storm, became the story I wanted to tell. That is tenacity, and truly deserving of an "attagirl." (I can still remember my Dad saying those words to me, it's amazing how one almost word can make you proud.)

So the tree branches in the background are from my dogwood, and although I don't think this is the same chickadee, this one was willing to pose. I love the transparent underpainting of the branches, which I cut into with almost opaque pale blue grey. And although the dress looks a similar color, it has several layers of paint on it as well, to deepen the shadows and make the high spots shine. Remember "attagirl" every time you weather a storm!

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