Today’s painting was created in my Hamilton studio, on the second floor of the building at 337 Ottawa St. N … around the corner from 337 Sketch Gallery. There are a few artists & photographers renting space there, but a lot of available space in case any of you are looking.

I was lucky enough to be able to rent a room short term for the project I had in mind – I’m calling it a “self-hosted residency”,  for the artist whose kids are still too young for her to apply for a proper residency.

Despite the crazy time frame (on a good day that would be the hours my youngest was in school, minus the commute back & forth), I was prolific during that time.

I thought I would show you some of the stages that this painting went through … especially because I know there are a number of artists following along.

To be honest, when I started with the pthalo blue background, I intended to let the wispy bits of the feathers fade into the blue … but then I mixed up a nice buttery colour and I just got carried away cutting away the negative shapes around the wreath shape.

That left me with a blue wreath floating on a light background. So then I got the idea to add a pattern, to help integrate the different elements of the image  … and I started with circles.

How about a wreath floating, on a stoney riverbed?

I filled in some of the circles, creating depth, making them less like circles. In fact some looked a little like … eggs. After all, I’m painting peacock feathers … so eggs aren’t a stretch.

Up until this point I had been flipping the painting around and around as I went, not quite sure I wanted to assign a right-side-up to it.

As I played with the idea that the stones could actually be eggs, I really began working on the shadow. That’s when the orientation became obvious to me.

I decided to leave room for multiple interpretations of this image.

The research I have done on peacock imagery shows that over the years it has been used as a symbol of immortality, resurrection, rebirth. 

Every day until Art in the Park, Oakville which is on August 3, I will be posting a new painting from my peacock series. Join my e-mail list so you don’t miss any!

If you are already subscribed, and haven’t read yesterday’s notice … the daily e-mails are only for this week, after that it goes back down to 1-4x/mth!

If this painting catches your eye, and you can imagine it in your home or office, e-mail donna@bluerootsartstudio.com