White Crane - Day 29 of the #jan30in30 Challenge

White Crane by April M Rimpo

White Crane is a rework of an older painting, originally titled "White Egret", but given its make-over I decided the new title was more appropriate, pun intended. My Apple Clock painting was so fun I decided to take a similar direction. Adding the gears, pistons, and paper wings were not the only changes.  While I was at it I added more pastel shades in the shadows and improved the contours of the bird. I think this make-over resulted in a better painting than I had before. If you ever feel you need to do something to improve a painting, don't be afraid to go way out of the box.

The image above shows the cropped painting after it has been gallery wrapped. The final painting will be 14" X 11" with a 1" gallery wrap depth.

White Crane

Fluid Acrylic and Watercolor

14" X 11" gallery wrapped and varnished paper

$375

Available for Purchase Here

I have to thank Leslie Saeta again for holding this challenge since I might not have tried this had I not had 28 prior days of experimentation under my belt. Go to her blog to see the other paintings done by all the artists participating in the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  #jan30in30

Apple Clock - Day 26 of the #jan30in30 Challenge

Clock Apple a fluid acrylic on 5" X 5" deep cradle Aquabord

Apple Clock

Fluid Acrylic

5" X 5" X 2" Aquabord

$95

Available for Purchase Here

I find the Steampunk trend interesting in the combination of mechanical parts with everyday objects. Sometimes animals are transformed to made of mechanical parts such as gears and pulleys and engines and sometimes clothing on figures has a mechanical component. Figuring out how to combine gears and pipes into an apple was a challenging experiment.  I was an electrical engineer before becoming a full time artist so I have some drafting skills, but I am not a mechanical engineer, so I am sure my clock would not function.  

I was determined to make the gears fit into the core of the apple and have a few elements that looked a bit like seeds.  It took quite a while working on a drawing while gallery sitting at a coop to which I belong. I played with a variety of angles on the apple and how much of the apple to "cut out" to provide a view to the clockworks and show the connection to the clock hands on the surface of the apple.  By adding the tick marks for each five minutes I was able to connect the extracted segment to the face of the clock.  A challenge, but very rewarding to come up with this design. I'm definitely going to have to try some more of these.

I'd love to hear what you think about this new endeavor.