Monday, September 8, 2008

Glee 2

I know, Glee 1 has not been shown yet. It's not even drawn. Well it was drawn, and then it got covered up with a lot of paint. See, it was on top of this large lioness which I really didn't want to do (but she would but in), and then I decided I didn't like the composition for Glee 1 which I had drawn on top of the still showing lion, and so I whacked them all with paint and scribbled all over it with Prismacolors. Neon Prismacolors: gorgeous badly behaved colored pencils, carnival barker loud, in your face and poke you in the eye but in a nice way, grab you by the collar and make you wish you had had half that much whiskey yourself, police whistle right in your ear starting the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and all the biggest and most garish balloons are all bunched up in the front. That sort of color. I love them like a puppy licking up a fallen ice cream cone. They make me drool (I've gotta watch that; it ruins the artwork).

Anyway...

This is Glee 2 and it might be the most straightforward of the forthcoming Glee paintings. This is how glee makes me feel, when it takes me over and I feel something between a belly laugh and a giggle, that punchy feeling you get when you can't stop laughing, and you don't want to.

This is another of the 19x19 (well, 19 and 1/4 vertical) that I like to do. It is just watercolor. The original is a bit more yellow (birds and his top hair locks) and the blue is deeper (it's French ultramarine!).

>>>> Appendix de Grenouille #35 <<<< This provocative jar rests on the grande pine bureau where Steve keeps his socks and numerous T-shirts. The jar was a gift from his cheri. If you lived through the 1970s (congratulations, or commiserations) then you perhaps recall a song which was considered naughty at the time, but would be nothing now compared to P!NK or Christina Aguilera, much less the talking music without music. But I digress.

When you open this jar, which all the little children of this house used to do on the big bed between the parents, so the parents could prolong their rest, you will find it is innocently complete with pebbles. The light colored, less shiny stones (which Steve would call rocks in his tous tous charmant American accent - exactly the way he also says socks) he picked up on the beaches of North Carolina. The light can shine through them. But the others were purchased by Steve especially for this containeur, many years ago, because they are tres jolie and because they were polished to this lovely shine by being washed up and down on the sands of Hokaido. Objects tres belles, brought half way round the globe just to please the eyes and hands. Delightful.

9 comments:

Life As I Know It Now said...

When I first came to visit this blog and I saw your paintings I immediately loved them. I loved the colors. Now I would say they are opals--they shine and sparkle with colors.

Distributorcap said...

even when you spill stones on the table it screams - art!

Steve Emery said...

Liberality - what a lovely thing to say. And like opals it feels like it's happening by accident - I can't help myself.

DCap - Wow - what a thing to say. It can be a pain, though, sometimes, having to arrange every little rock ;-)

Unknown said...

I like the stones, too. I never thought of glee as having so much motion, at least in my view - I like it.

Anonymous said...

That painting knocks my socks off. M. Grenouille's portion of the post seems to beg for a gets one's rocks off joke, but I don't want to shock him with naughty notions. He appears to be a bit young for that.

Anonymous said...

How delightful is Glee 2! I really love this painting - it would add so much joy to a room and to a life- you can't help but smile when you look at his face!

Steve Emery said...

MathMan - I hadn't thought of that... I find glee so hard to contain, to take sitting still, that I can't help but see it like this painting (or the other two already in my head). If it's not that irrepressible, to me, then it's not quite glee. But this is like the boundary between blue and green, or red and orange - where there is a world of possible interpretation. I'm glad you like it.

DCup - I think Grenouille (except that his rocks are so small, and his species only uses them for a short period every year - imagine that!) is old enough to hear just about anything. He's French, after all.

Odd Chick - Thanks very much - I was hoping he would fairly glow off the page, and maybe make others feel some of what he is feeling.

L'Adelaide said...

oh steve, thank you for glee....just what the doctor ordered! the colors ... mouth watering with the blue!

and your little rocks, I love it.

Steve Emery said...

Linda - I am glad you like Glee 2. I can't wait to get this in my office...

Now on to Glee 1.