Three new paintings available as prints

Today I picked up my imaged paintings and rushed home to get them up on my site. Unfortunately there seems to be an issue with the art uploader so for now I do have them up on RedBubble but not on www.Faunawolfcreations.com.

You can take a look all the paintings I've had imaged and order your very own print in the form of a poster, mounted print or card. A wonderful gift idea just in time for Christmas! Currently all the prices shown are in CAD but you can change the currency on RedBubble really easily. In fact, it should automatically set it to the currency most suitable to the country you're in.

I'll have a few more prints available by the 15th so keep watching.

London Journal - Ten Months and seven Tarot Cards

I arrived here on January 7th. It's now November 7th, ten months since that wintry day when the tubes were shut due to a dusting of snow.

When I first arrived I was without a job and with very few funds. What little money I had saved was practically halved due to the exchange and so my days needed to be spent frugally. I filled my time by visiting museums and job hunting.

About two weeks in I was unhinged. I had no art supplies and no money to buy art supplies. I awaited a delivery from Canada and felt myself going slowly bonkers.

When my supplies finally arrived (The case beaten up but the contents safe and ready for use.) it was as though a floodgate had opened. I bought a few canvases, deciding the expense was worth it for the sake of my sanity, and set to work on my Tarot Cards.

The last Tarot Card I'd completed before leaving Canada was Temperance, which I did for a friend.

The first card I did when I got to London was The Hierophant, which I did just for me. It continues to hang in one of the four spaces I have for my paintings, even though I've done seven more since.The Hanged Bat was my second piece completed and then there were a few weeks where I worked on other projects, taking a break from my cards. When I picked up the brush again it was to do The Magician.

I was already mulling my next card over when The Magician was just a pencil sketch. I often get the idea of the animal and a general image of the layout I want a few weeks before I start a card. I knew The Devil would be next because I could picture it so clearly.

Despite having such a clear idea of The Devil, this card has taken the longest for me to complete of any I've done thus far. It wasn't that the actually painting took any longer (I spend about eight to twelve hours per card.) but I found myself unable to work on it for weeks at a time. At one point I even feared it wouldn't be finished as I repeatedly laboured to get the horns just right.

Of course the feeling of being stuck didn't last and in one afternoon of solid painting I completed it and found the energy to start my next one.

But alas, I was without canvases for a time and had to put that energy into other projects until the time when I could afford some new ones.

The next batch of canvases arrived and I proceeded to complete Love, The Moon and The Hermit rapidly. Each of these carried through to the next and I found myself coming home and painting almost every evening. One of the canvases was damaged and so it could not be used for my Tarot Cards. Instead it was used for a self portrait and a replacement was ordered.

When I began The Tower I was nervous. I do not like this card and each card I've done has managed to reflect the energy and current experience of my life. I did not feel like I had the energy for a tear down and re-build but The Tower was sticking in my head. It was the only one of the remaining few I had to do that I had a clear idea for and so I began it.

I did seem to find myself wavering. Things seemed to be coming to a head and in an effort to remedy the personal difficulties I was struggling with I rushed to complete the piece.

It is the last one I've done but not the last Tarot Card I've worked on. I have two more from that last order of canvases. They're both started, both waiting for my time and attention.

Last week my final five 24X36 inch canvases arrived. The final five canvases for a project begun in January 2009 when I still lived in Calgary and moving to London was merely an idea in a long list of ideas.

From The High Priestess to The Tower, I have now explored and created seventeen of the twenty-two cards that make up the Major Arcana of a Tarot deck. I have spent nearly two years on this project which is now nearing the end. Last year I did nine cards in twelve months. This year I've done eight in ten, so far.

It's amazing what you can accomplish in a year. Amazing to ponder, if this is what you can do in a year, what will you do in a lifetime?

I look forward to finding out.

The Hermit

I like surveying my followers and fans for input as to which tarot card they'd like to see me do next. Often it boils down to what I have an idea for in my head. Ultimately I go with what seems to be telling me it needs doing next. In this case I offered up the option of the card I chose or The Sun. This was met with the wise request for me to share more about the spirit of each card.

I wrote a response to this on Facebook and I don't think I need to add much to it:

The Hermit is about isolation, self reflection and withdrawal. It's about the wisdom we get when we spend time with ourselves and it usually represents the need to pay attention to what our isolation is telling us.

It is not representative of a chosen withdrawal from the world, but it's saying, "Take this as an opportunity, learn from it and then you may re-enter the world with new wisdom."

It can also be representative of a confidant, like a therapist or trustworthy friend.

I knew I wanted to have an intense and rich sky but I didn't realise the direction this choice would take me. It was easy to create the barren landscape on which The Hermit walks with a sky lit by a a rapidly setting sun. I'm immensely proud of my clouds and the expanse they give a rather small piece of sky. The glow of the lantern actually came to me after I ran out of the brown I'd mixed on my pallet, which I'd been using to fill in the path. The base of the path was yellow ochre and it stopped short of the raccoon's legs, right where the glow of the lantern would naturally be. I suspect this painting would have lacked the depth of shadow it has if not for that. I realised that the glow would be quite easy to do and any past intimidation I've felt about painting light into something dissipated.

I finished the painting in far fewer days than most of my cards take. I think this was because the canvas was always left off with an idea hanging, like when I write and I finish a sentence with a lead into the next to keep inspiration flowing.

...and once again I've done a card that depicts where I feel I am and what I feel I'm contemplating currently. London is full of people and I think loneliness is amplified when you're surrounded by so many strangers. I didn't expect to feel so isolated when I came over here. I make friends easily. When I went to Australia, when I attended conferences as a youth, when I went to Palm Springs, I have always managed to meet and greet and get to know a lot of very lovely people. I have been meeting people but the connections are few and far between and it seems like the moment I meet someone it will be weeks or even a month before either of us can manage to get together again.

This isolation and loneliness seems to be a well understood bi-product of a city the size of London. There are hundreds of things to see and do. There seems to be no end to the museums, galleries and performances. There also seems to be no end to the crowds, which is probably why most people who live here just want to go home after a day's work. When the tube or a bus is the quickest way to get around and the average journey is an hour, I can't blame people for not wanting to come out more often. I've felt the resistance at the idea of traveling if only because it's a two way journey and I'll have to factor in getting home at the end of the day.

So for now, I'm more alone than I'd like to be but, as with all things, there's a lesson to be learned in this.

I have six cards left to paint: The Tower, The Sun, The Chariot, The Wheel of Fourtune, Justice and Judgement.

Please let me know with a comment which one you'd most like to see next.