Friday 13th, Full Moon and Skulls

For what is probably one of the most Gothic dates in the calendar, I am show casing one of the most Gothic paintings I've done. 

Raven took a photo because I lost my camera

It's an amethyst-coloured crystalline vampire skull on a black background with a black frame - pretty cliché!

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I have not been very well lately. While I was at home ill the weekend after my last post, I did this painting. I actually started it a couple weeks before, at the art club I attended, but it was just a roughly realised sketch in purple over white with the black background blocked in and the forms of the skull pretty much drawn, but with no real detail, depth or finish. As I was too ill to really do much at all, especially not anything particularly active, and I was struggling to sleep at night or during the day due to how much I was woken by my own coughing, I had to find something to occupy my time. As this was a small painting done on board with no need for an easel and not requiring much space, this was the perfect project to do wrapped up warmly in the living-room - no need to move much, I could sit on my over-sized cushion or the couch, and it required little physical activity. The painting needed to dry between stages, giving me time to nap during the day, too.

I saw the doctor on the Friday and it turns out that I had sinusitis yet again and I ended up on a course of antibiotics. I'm still very mildly congested, but I'm thoroughly functioning. Anyway, back on Monday I was at work again, if still not well, as I was well enough to function. As such, I was in town, so I took the painting in to the framers. I collected the painting again this Friday. On the bus back from town, the painting garnered quite a bit of interest from two passengers - one who was totally fascinated by it, and offered to buy it, but sadly not at a price that covered the expense of framing, let alone my time. If he had offered me more, I would have sold it to him there and then!

I don't often sell my paintings, and this picture was intended as a mere exercise in practising acrylic painting as it is something I had not done in a while and something I felt rather rusty at. It's not a piece with any great meaning, it's just a painting of a crystalline or glass skull with elongated teeth and distorted proportions to be that of a vampire. It was done completely freehand without a reference, and while the proportions are deliberately not correct for a human skull, I think it stands fairly well to show that I have drawn possibly a few too many skulls in my time! 

The reason that I am wanting to sell it is two-fold - one is that my bicycle is in need of repairs and I am trying to raise the cash to pay for it, and the other is that I have a limited amount of picture hooks (due to the rental agreement) and a limited amount of storage space (due to the size of the flat) and think that while it is certainly the kind of art that I would display in my home, in this case I feel that if I keep it, it is liable to be damaged in storage and it is certainly the kind of subject matter I could easily paint again. I am actually having a bit of a clear-out as Raven and I may be moving again in the near future, and having fewer things means less to pack and move, and it is also an opportunity to assess what I really want to keep, and what is clutter. I don't think this painting is clutter by any means, but I don't want to hold on to something I am likely to damage, and I need the money.