Story Painting

Concertina Book

Since the pandemic begun back in March, I stopped going to the studio because It actually worried me to be away from home. After a few months and missing my studio tremendously I started thinking about other options. As you all know, I moved my studio back in August to the building where I live. This is the story behind the move. 

After missing going to the studio for 3-4 months, a light bulb lit up in my head. In the building where I live we still had one of my mom’s apartment’s for sale - a studio apartment around 730 Sq. Ft. I began thinking about keeping that apartment and not selling it. Long story short, we took the apartment off the market and made it my studio. The best decision we made. 

After the move, and once we had everything pretty much set-up in the studio, it was hard for me to get back to painting. It was really hard to concentrate and do anything for about 5-6 months. To impose focus and jumpstart my creative process, I decided to take a virtual class that I saw called “Story Painting” taught by an Australian artist, Tracy Verdugo. What interested me about her classes was the story part. I love to tell stories with my paintings. I loved every minute of Tracy’s class and I painted with different forms of water base paints like all kinds of acrylics and gouache. Above and below are some samples of the different paintings I made, all with a story behind it. 

Sketchbooking

Heidi’s Garden - Acrylic collage and Gouache on watercolor paper w- 11”x15”

Memories from Mexico - Acrylic and Gouache on watercolor paper - 11” x 15”

Fluffy and Marie - Acrylic and Gouache on watercolor paper - 11” x 11”

*Named by one of my granddaughters, the 2 3/4 year old. She called on FaceTime while I was painting this and asked me to show her what I was doing. She said she wanted it and said that the kitty looked like her favorite cat Marie from one of the Disney movies and the doggy could be Fluffy, a story that her mommy is telling her.

Since I’ve begun this class, I try to paint or doodle something every day. It just keeps me sane in these crazy times. 

Stay tuned for my next blog post. Today I am working on a Marc Chagall inspired painting.