A year ago, I was in the middle of totally revamping www.maureenmccarron.com after months of intensive training in Search Engine Optimization and website building. It was maddening, but not as bad as the year before when what I called the Loch Ness Monster had erupted through the floor of my galley kitchen and I spent five months living in a demolition site and listening to dueling contractors mansplain why they had to wait for each other to do whatever before the job got done. I spent those five months reminding myself to be grateful I didn’t live in Ukraine and sequestered in my art studio with piles of what was meant to be in the main room. I had moved my bed out there only weeks before Nessie reared her head since I was sick of seeing an art mess when I walked in my front door. Everything in the main room got moved many more times to accommodate the floor people, the black mold people and the guy who gutted my kitchen island, but once they were gone, the only thing I’ve moved has been plants. The studio, formerly the bedroom, however is in constant flux. Not that there’s much space left in there since I got my glorious drafting table, but the viewing wall changes every time I frame a new piece. Luckily, the woman who bought the painting that paid for my trip to the UK has moved into her new house and is finally ready to receive it. Which leaves a spot on the wall for Odile.
Yes, I was planning on doing a toucan or blue heron next but I had so much fun doing the flamingo I posted last week, I wanted to paint a swan. And since there are already nine predominately white birds in this series I’m working on for my up-coming solo show in September, it had to be black. One thing I learned with the crows I’ve painted is paint is never black enough so Odile’s texture is the result of pen and ink on top of the layers of acrylic colors. She’s been framed and will look amazing when she takes her place on the wall. Then I can go back to the toucan or blue heron plan, although I did spent an hour looking at starling photographs yesterday, so you will have to wait until next week to see how that goes.