I told a friend this week about my latest project and she said, “Tara, do we need to talk about this recent obsession with dancing animals?” No, Gretchen. I’m as sane as I ever was, and yes, I’m aware that is not a high bar. Unfortunately, my sanity or lack thereof was of little import this weekend. The memorial for my friend was on Saturday, and as expected, it was a gut-wrencher. I came back from the memorial wiped out and spent the rest of the evening in a coma in front of the television. Fortunately, I had done a little painting before the memorial, so I made a little progress. Today has been filed with dog training, food prep, and cleaning; all the things that make the coming week do-able, but no one wants to hear about. It’s bad enough to have to do them!

I am still working on my studies for “Yellowstone Dancers”.

Sentinel

Brash Boy

Joiner

Partners

For those who have forgotten, the goal is to end up with something like this.

But I’m still struggling with HOW to paint the bison and background and how to CONNECT them.

While the trip to Yellowstone is 100% responsible for this idea, I’ve been examining “The Dance” by Henri Matisse to figure out how he did it.

There is a HUGE emphasis on the space between the dancers, which brings the connections between them into sharp focus. The shape “below” the dancers functions as a secondary connection mechanism. Without having “hands”, I’m still struggling how to connect my bison.

I think I’ve settled on the stark shape method for the painting, rather than drop-in wet. I like drop-in wet, but I think it’s too easy to get lost in the colors, rather than the shapes.

At this point the only thing I really know is that we will all have to “stay tuned’ to figure out the resolution of this painting!