Summer Solstice

It's pouring rain out as if its October...very strange. The theme was summer soltice. I had painted a sun in 09 that I never liked, so i just painted over the center with a fresh design.

Dreaming out of your mind

The theme was Dreaming...dreaming out of your mind.
I cut a big piece of paper and imagined I would paint a big head and chest and have the background dark and forbidding and have the inside of the person come alive with color and swirl and hallucenations, but I pulled out a painting from just a few weeks ago and realized I'd recently painted something similar. (see MAY 5th Inner Resources)
So tonight I did something I'd never done before...I made a template..I drew a figure on watercolor paper and cut it out and then traced it with a small paint brush, the first one centered on the bottom of the page, the next one opposite and on top, then left, right and infill until there were eight figures hand to hand. I painted the center yellow, around their heads, where the dreaming connection takes place.

Anyone ever read "the King of Ata are Waiting for You" by Dorothy Bryant? The island is inhabited by deceptively primitive people where every aspect of their waking lives is governed by their dream life. They slept in dream circles and considered the dream world their reality and waking world the support world.

I had just spent 3 days in Mendocino, including an afternoon at the botanical gardens! the rhododendrums and the azaleas are in bloom and are so large and saturated in color..reds and purples.

The painting has many layers, you can see different things depending on the focus. Someone said he saw big fish heads taking a bite and making the center star, many people did not see that the blue ring were figures. I find that satisfying.