From Tragic to Nothing

Last week Cousin was given six months to live. Yesterday they gave him weeks, as in he most likely will not make it to February. His brother is here from California, his sister is here from Colorado, and today they want to move all of his stuff out of our place. Brother in Lehi doesn't want Cousin to pass away in the house he is currently house sitting, and since a medical bed would not be able to make it up the three flights to our door, not to mention the narrow nature of said stairs, forget about whether or not Cousin could make it up the stairs.... and well it looks like Cousin is going to a hospice center. I really don't want that, I want him home, but everything is so completely out of our hands now that we have little room to demand.

Cousin seems to like the idea of a hospice place, somewhere he can get 24/7 care from professionals. (sigh) Obviously on paper a hospice center seems right, but in my brain, I don't like it.

From Horrible to Tragic

On Monday Cousin looked like he was doing really well. We were hoping that he was going to be able to come home on Friday. He was getting up and eating solid foods and he wants to fight.. all good things. Husband and I decided that we needed some more sleep and didn't go up Tuesday or Wednesday. Husband went up today, my brother came into town last night, and things are not good.

He is regressing. They are not sure if he is having seizures or had a stroke. They are doing an EEG test now and then he will have an MRI. His speech is slurred and he can't think right. He thought he heard me talking outside his room yesterday, so he got up to go find me. The doctor that found him wondering around told Cousin that we were not there and Cousin thought the doctor was joking with him.

Painting things doesn't seem so important right now, you know? I would still like to try to get something into the Hogle Zoo thing. We shall see. His cancer has been officially diagnosed as stage 4. I feel lost a little bit. Everything seems so unsure.

From Worse to Horrible

Saturday before last we found Cousin unconscious. Called 911. His liver was super failing because he hadn't been taking his medication for at least two weeks. (I wanted to jump down his throat when he told us that.) He was unconscious until Tuesday. He woke up Tuesday afternoon, on Thursday doctors removed his colon, they found metastasized colon cancer, and now he can no longer get a liver transplant. He is now terminal.

The past week and a half has been a lot of driving up to the transplant center an hour away. He was originally taken to the hospital five blocks from my house, but then quickly transferred there to be with his doctors. He spent most of the time in the ICU. 

Living close a hospital means that we hear a lot of rushing by ambulances and fire trucks. Before they were just there, then after last week it was a relief that they weren't coming to my house, but now I feel a sense of dread for the future 911 calls that will be made. 

Meaning, that yet again I have not been painting. We have been spending nights up at the hospital and most of the day. Yesterday I finally had some time to sit down and finish the gray kitten. I will post that soon. My stress level has reached all types of new levels. Lack of sleep mixed with crazy life means that I crash hard at random times during the day. 

He is still in the hospital, and may be getting out this weekend? We shall see. 

THE FINGERS: Part 2

Toned the board with a nice mint green, and then I transferred the drawing and established the shadows in burnt sienna:

The image is a little dark, I must not have had the light on... but again, just a start.

Gray Kitten: Part 3

Yesterday I got this far with kitten (not much further from the last time, but still):

Over the past two days I have stared at it more than painted it, oops, but I couldn't shake that I needed to add another color. There needed to be more!! By the end of the day yesterday I had decided that strawberries were the answer. I even had a good image picked out, but then I did this today:

I really like how the green finished off the color scheme, I may have also gone a little green leaf happy but I think I like it. Things to still do: finish the leaves, add the yellow stamen to the flowers, and finish off the background. If in the end a darker background does not make the kitten pop like I am hoping it will, I will also do a light glaze of zinc white, hopefully that will solve the problem.

Mr. T: Part 3

Finally actually started doing something with Mr. T yesterday. Established some darks and now it is time to go at it!

Also, puppy has creepy eyes! 

Artist of the Week: Ester Curini

I happened upon an animal artist today and thought that I would write about her, mostly because I have only done one artist of the week post. (shrug)

The artist is Ester Curini. She is Italian, paints in acrylic, and she is self-taught. As you can see, she is hyper realistic, however not in a “might as well put up a photograph” type of way. She has a slight stylization that I like. 

In an interview for the International Artist.com magazine, Ester describes her inspiration, design, and working processes. She says that for each work she tries to capture the energy, essence, and spirit of each animal. Ester starts her process by spending hours with her subject. She says that sometimes hours are spent out in fields waiting for that one magical connection. She then uses photoshop to crop and edit her photograph. In the interview Ester explained that although she uses photography as a guide in her paintings, that her paintings are just that, pure paintings.

Once the subjected is photographed, and the desired composition created, Ester will then draw a basic outline of the animal on a fine grain canvas. She usually starts by painting the eyes first. The eyes she paints are by far my favorite. She likes to isolate the animal by using a white, blank background but then will paint within the eyes the actual background of the original photograph. For example, in her painting Jane Doe, Ester painted the woods that the doe was grazing in and even her own figure.  After the eyes are finished, Ester will continue finishing the figure of the animal using script liner brushes. You can truly see the amount of time, dedication, and effort on her part. Jane Doe alone took her three months to complete.

This is one thing that I need to learn, time is okay. School tends put high "finishing" demands on a student, which has its pros and cons, but due to those demands I tend towards a habitual need to complete complete complete, now now now. Sometimes I need to remember that it takes time and that is okay.

If you would like, you can see more of Ester’s works here.