A Day in the Life...

Ah, times are busy. Though the stress of painting is gone, and to be honest I think I am going through withdrawal symptoms even though I am very glad to not feel forced to get everything done...now the more practical sides of having a solo show begins.

At the gallery with all of the originals...planning planning

I'd like to continue to make these paintings personal to their prospective owners, so I am making work in progress booklets for each of them. As well as certificates in advance - which I got some new lovely paper for from England!

the certificate for Nectar all ready to go!

To make matters a little more stressful, my archival printer ran out of 5 colors of ink...and replacing each one of them costs an equivalent of $40....so you can imagine with that on top of framing and professional photography I am feeling swamped!!

the crazy mess of changing inks on my epson r3000

But besides the time consuming paperwork we have also been having a bit of fun with packaging and new projects! I have a few things lined up to do, mainly a collaboration with the awesome Laurie McClave who is also a member in our art collective Red Sirens!
I wanted to do the painting a bit differently this time, since I usually paint from realistic models and she does not - I decided to paint from a sketch. And I have been sketching alot in the evenings!

scanned in sketch for Laurie McClave collab!

I went for a few of our favorite things: birds, antlers, and ofc a beautiful lady ^^ I scanned it in and placed it on a canvas the same size as the masonite in real life to help me figure out how big it needed to be in the end. I have begun slow work on the background...but it is really slow :P Taking it easy with painting is the name of the game right now - but sure to change soon.

new packaging for orders off of my shop! :D

Another one of my goals for post-painting time was new packaging for orders off of my Etsy Shop! Which by the way is now having a celebratory 20% off sale (coupon code: CELEBRATION8711), since I am completely done with the collection and have all new prints up on there! Its really nice packing these prints, with the new wax seal on them :D Some good old fashioned-ness right there for you! Who doesnt like receiving a pretty package in the mail after all ^^

my wall of art!

And now with my wall of art complete over top of my studio space I am just about ready to carry on with the show and begin a new chapter of my life! Its been 6 long months of work - but I think alot of fun is on its way too ^^ We will see wont we!
I have alot of new concepts for paintings, and even a few new paints to help me along the way :D So lets see! New season on its way, new paintings, new times.
Wish me luck until then!!

As summer dwindles and time runs out

I know I have been a poor sport with my blog.
To be fair I have been swamped with painting for the new show - blah! But I am quickly running out of time before the opening and soon I will be in a brand new phase and hopefully back to being more active right here!

"Equilibrium" 40 x 100 cm acrylic on masonite by Christina Lank

I have been on vacation the last 2 weeks and have spent my time devoting mostly to this painting. It was bought in the sketch phase - so I knew I had to make it something very special!

Moth girl in Equilibrium by Christina Lank

I wanted to make a painting showing the dark and light sides to each of us. More and more I see, hear, feel how we have multiple sides, almost like personalities. Negative traits like selfish, obsessive, judgmental... but at the same time they are harsh you must always think they are actually bred out of the good traits in us as well.

Butterfly girl in Equilibrium by Christina Lank

Judgements can be made out of our good tastes, our good intentions, expecting others to think and act in your own positive ways. Selfish can be born out of your own self determination, focus and ambition...Obsessive is one trait which I have been slapped with which I also find to be a two sided thing. It all depends on where you focus it...

Me holding Equilibrium, you can see how big it is!

The point is it is an entanglement, like the hair you see in painting. We are all versions, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers to ourselves. It takes a long time to accept your other half...and even harder to change it.

But the sentiment painted here is there is always an Equilibrium between the two.

I am not going to be painting a forest scene :P I have my dear model friend Michelle helping me once more :O Who I am very excited about painting as she is my beautiful muse!
Now I must skuttle back to the daily grind  and hope wish promise, I will be able to gab on with you lot more in the future :D

"Torn" New Painting Complete!

"Torn" acrylic on masonite 40 x 80 cm by Christina Lank

Hello everybody! I am happy to announce by new painting "Torn" is finally complete ^^
This painting is the 5th in part of the Fragile Things collection - which will be on display in September at Martin's Gallery in Malmö :)

Let me tell you a bit about the painting!

up close of the young lady catching feathers :)

This painting was directly inspired by the model, whom I know in person. She has a bit of a heartbreaking tale of struggle, hardships, and lives in consistent physical pain do to past injuries.
But it's more than just the physical, there is also alot of torment from within. This is what I wanted to capture in this painting.

and yet she looks hopeful, catching her feathers like dreams

Though this girl looks perfect as a picture in real life, she is proof that no matter how perfect someone may appear on the outside, I have found they rarely if ever feel that way behind closed doors.
Theres always a flaw, theres always something thats not quite right.... these forces are always reaching up from underneath trying to undermine us and pull down down. On the other hand - we also have the light....the dream of being free of worry stress or doubt. The feeling of being perfect no matter what shines back at us in the mirror.

Me and Torn sittin in the kitchen ^^

This painting was inspired by the model who has truly conquered death to fight for life, and its a fight we all make to get it through all the pressures no matter what they may be for all of us.
So, in truth it is a painting about hope - reach to the sky to find a lighter brighter life no matter what may be trying to hold us down.

I hope you enjoy my new painting! It's one of the larger ones I have painted in recent history and there are alot of subtle bits to it thats very hard to capture in a photograph, like sparkly silver bits on her dress... but if youre in Malmö in September I encourage you to come on by and have a look!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Painting with Planties Tuesday! #11: Working Through the Pain in Painting

I am no stranger to messy beginnings. In fact - I expect them.
For my newest project I had one of my more challenging poses...full body straight from the front - meaning very small facial features and alot of room to have things get tricky!

the first layer of skin is always the most awkward

color palette: yellow ochre, paynes grey, cadmium red dark, burnt umber, carbon black, titanium white, pale portrait pink, quinacridone red, cerulean blue *phew*!

All my paints are Golden Open Acrylics, except for the pale portrait pink which is by Liquitex :)

and another layer and another layer

I like working from a solid tone as best as I can. Note!! Something interesting, when working on an already colored background, it really does change the way the skin color goes on. Because this one was blue, all the original skin tones came out crazy orange! The color on my palette ended up being a sortve ashey tone as I added the blue into it - it still came out orangey but just a thought for the future! Probably always best to ad a wee bit of the background color in when you can :)

let the horror begin.

Yeah, scary I know...it gets worse!!

burn victim alert!

Right here, all you can do is laugh. This was the beginning of a 4 hour journey trying to get her face from that to something a little more human. The only way to do that is layers and layers of shadows.
You can see the paint never goes on smooth. That comes with alot of drying times and patience.

Always keep the transfer paper if you use this method!

Helpful tip! If youre working from a direct model like I am and have used transfer paper to move your sketch onto the canvas - always keep it! If features get lost while putting on skin tones, just try and transfer on some more graphite to help you along the way :)

oh the humanity!!

I know its brutal, believe me it was even more brutal for me! The thing is, the eyes make such a difference, but theres no use working on them until the skin shadows are a bit more established...
Like my dear friend Kristin Palmer said to me the word Pain is in Painting for a reason!

okay, wonky eyes, but we're getting somewhere now.

After a small break to let the paint dry and relieve the nerve stress, I went back in and painting on more hair, adjusted her jaw line, and her mouth....as well as tried to figure out what on earth I had done to her eyes :P

there we go that looks better!

oh so heavenly

now it looks alot more like the model and i can go to sleep relieved :P

In the end after alot of effort I pulled it out of the burn victim horror and back into the light :)
Plenty of breather breaks, and some determination....hopefully this painting will pull together nicely!

Now - what do you think, pink or dark purple dress....hmmm

Night night everyone!

Ophelia's Dream - Complete!

Ophelia's Dream - artwork by Christina Lank
40 x 60 cm acrylic on masonite board

Yay, I finally get to post my new painting onto my blog as well! I know I am a day behind (I am that and more with everything now and days) - but I am very happy to reveal my Ophelia rendition and some exclusive close up shots I havent posted anywhere else ^^

condensed flowers in the background, including a dragonfly!

I wanted flowers, lots of flowers. This painting became darker and darker for everyday I worked on it haha, it seemed like I had a harder time pulling it out into the light more than anything else.
I painted this overgrowth once, then again, and then again, each time adding more and more highlights, and increasingly darker shadows....

Lily flowers and lily pads down on the lower part of the painting

However the light did shine through very naturally when I began painting the lily flowers, which to me really popped more than I had expected. If I can blushingly admit, those lily flowers took me about 5 hours to paint (I know, I know...) but in the end I got just the right pink for me :P

Ophelia's face in the water...

Ophelia herself is no surprise - she came quite quickly and naturally. I had a superb model whom I was very grateful for having! At least, the part out of the water came naturally...anyone who follows my blog knows what happened to the part under water!! :O

itsy bitsy dragonfly on Ophelia's hip

The dragonflies were the last time to be painted onto this piece. Richard, my ever loving boyfriend, comes in and out of my paintings depending on what I am doing. He completely ignored this painting right up until the end where he suddenly had many opinions on the gosh darn dragonflies lol! We spent quite some time painting silver, than inking blue...than inking green. They may be tiny, but from afar they certainly do shine!

Ophelia's Dream painting in full - so you may take in the details all together!

I took one nice shot of it outside, during my usual "i hate photography so much" run around trying to find good lighting on a dark painting. Here you can take in from afar all the lights, darks, shades and shadows....with her almost peaceful look.

Ophelia was a painting I had wanted to do for many months, though the original image in my head was a hundred times different! From purples, to reds, to greens and yellows, to deep blues and pinks, its taken a journey from thought to reality.
The imagery of a woman falling to her death from a willow tree, lost her mind crazy, but the character herself in the original play always had to be an innocent factor. One I thought would transmit into peacefulness once she was released from real life, into the unknown of death.

I hope you like my new painting!
If you happen to be in Sweden, you can come see it, and all my other paintings this September in Malmö at Martin's Color + Gallery!
Follow along with all the other paintings I'll be doing for a show here on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/plantiebees

Error! Plantie's Is Shut Down!

I am sorry to say Painting with Planties has to be cancelled this week!

My computer was loveling taken apart by Richard today, and got a bunch of new parts...so now of course the monitor doesnt work. And still doesnt I am afraid!
I am on my work laptop reporting to you my delay in friendly service :P

I can show you my recent sketch however in the meantime.

Ophelia Sketch - Yes I own this image. 

This is my new painting, a tribute to Ophelia. For those who follow me on Facebook, I posted this a few days ago over the weekend. I wanted to show you the startings of this on masonite board - but perhaps sometime later I will go over what I have done!

I also have photos from my Easter artshow which I will be posting on Facebook once I get my computer back :P

Hope youre all having a delightful week and fingers crossed to see you soon! :D

"Within" - New painting complete!!

Hey everyone :) - I am very happy to announce my newest painting is complete!

"Within" acrylic on masonite board 40 x 60 cm by Christina Lank

The painting is called "Within" - painted with a mix of standard Galeria acrylics, and Golden Open acrylics. Its painted on a gessoed masonite board measuring 40 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 inches approx.)

I have kept the main character in this painting a bit of a mystery this time around. The reason being I think shes quite unique, and not always portrayed in fantasy paintings - even though she is a creature from well documented folklore.

Please welcome my Huldra!

Huldra painted with acrylics with her little owl friends ^^

A Huldra - Plantie's little lesson:

I was first introduced to the Huldra from Neil Gaiman's book "Fragile Things" - which is the name sake of my new collection. The book is actually a series of short stories - one being a sortve epilogue to one of my favorite all time books "American Gods". In the story you follow the character Shadow, whom meets a Huldra in England...far away from her home in Norway....

A Huldra is a mythical creature originating from Norway and Sweden. In Norway she is depicted as an unusually beautiful woman with a cows tail. In Sweden - the cows tail may also be a fox's.
The name Huldra is a derivative of the word "covered" or "secret" and she is known as "skogsfru" meaning The Lady of the Forest.

The back of a huldra is hollow, like a tree trunk. Of which for this painting I placed little baby owls ^^ Because well, I just didnt think it should be empty!

Baby owls sitting in the Huldra's hollowed out back

There are alot of stories about what Huldra's did with humans. Some men say that Huldra seduced them and left them their ugly little babies on their doorsteps. Or that they drained all their energy away.
In "Fragile Things" it describes part of the legend of how Huldras would fall in love with farmers, and that their tails would fall off the more time she spent as a wife - but she always retained her supernatural strength and would demostrate it to a disobedient or abusive husband.

oops, one fell out!

Interestingly, they claim that Huldras originate from a biblical setting - being the children Eve didnt have time to wash before God came to visit their home - God then decreed the dirty ones she hid from him would be unseen by mankind and became the huldrer. 
Fits into the quote from the book of which I base my collection from -
"These people ought to know who we are and tell that we are here"

Overall Huldra's are ones who require respect. If you respect them, are polite, and never mention their tail, The Lady of the Forest will reward you in turn!

I had a great time learning about Huldras, and painting my own depiction of one :D
I hope you enjoy her too, and her magical wood setting.
Remember dont mention her tail and have a great weekend!