Day #15 - Abstractly Original

Day 15 marks the half way point of the 30 day challenge!  Do you see me dancing with glee?  To celebrate I got a little crazy and did an abstract in acrylic.  But ah....the back story:
"Little Dream"
There once was a little house in the woods that stood empty for many years.  It was sad because once upon a time it knew the laughter of happy people and the love of a family.  It was just a little house but it dreamed of being painted yellow and sporting peacock blue shutters and maybe even an orange door!  Just a little dream.

Every year the house worked hard to keep her chin held high; she pretended that she was yellow and turquoise and mango orange.  And sometimes this helped her not to feel so neglected and abandoned. But she was all alone and very lonely.

 One day a couple got off their bikes and poked around the overgrown yard of the little house.  They could feel her smile and saw her wiggle with delight.  Hmmm, they said to one another, wouldn't she look charming painted yellow?  What about an orange door? added the man.  The house almost giggled out loud.

So the couple decided they would be happy if they could watch the sun set and the moon rise every day of the year from the porch of the little could-be-yellow house.  They saw potential and fell unconditionally in love.  They signed papers, and more papers, and more papers and waited and waited and waited.  Time passed.

Paths got blocked, papers got lost, distractions, complications, incompetence and stupidity.  No one seemed to care that the little house was losing faith, falling sadder and sadder with each passing month.  Weeds grew. Hope shrunk.  Was it really too much to dream about being loved? Didn't anyone care about her or the couple on the bikes?

The couple is still in the picture, as is the rising  moon and the setting sun. Dreams of an orange door still exist.  Yet he path  to that door is still obstructed and frustration is mounting.  The little house clings to her little dream...and until it comes true she will watch the sun set and the moon rise all by herself, hoping someday she gets to share it with love.

"Little Dream" 6" x 6" acrylic on paper

matted in white to size 12" x 9"

Cindy Michaud Art

30 days of painting with the non-dominate hand

buy this original piece here

Logan's Pass Gets Another Pass

Several weeks ago I posted a finished (I thought) pastel of Logan's Pass, a view seen

only by hikers in the Glacier National Park.

I matted it, framed it and set it aside in my studio.

But as days passed it bothered me...something was not quite right

about the piece and as much as I hate de-framing something, I hate

even more leaving work that bothers me for others to see.

So I went back to my sketchbook from the

trip to compare notes with the "finished" painting.

The framed piece was "sweet" and "soft"....but my sketch had absolutely

nothing sweet about it.  It was hard and jagged and held contrasts.  It was not soft.

Out came the old and a few hours later back in went the new.

I don't know if you will like it better but it definitely "feels" more like the

real deal to me.  I'm going to live with it a while longer just

to be certain I took it as far as it needed to go.

And maybe, just maybe this will serve to remind me to do the "living with a piece"

before the framing part! 

Meanwhile, it is a square format pastel, 5 x 5, matted to a 12 x 9 size.



When I'm happy I will put it on my website here.

Mountain Creek

 Painting the creek is almost, almost as good as being there, sitting beside it

and playing with the stones...almost.

pastel

painting is 10 x 8 but matted and framed to 12 x 9

frame matches inside wooden liner

"Mountain Creek"