Koi Fish and Gingko Leaves Oil Painting

www.hellennevermillion.com

Koi Fish and Gingko Leaves oil painting

on canvas
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White Moon Blue Night oil painting finished

White Moon Blue Night by Hellenne Vermillion

www.hellennevermillion.com

30" x 24" oil on canvas

Seeing the Light Abstract Oil Painting

This is a 24" x 36" abstract oil painting depicting the emotional turmoil in one's life that twists and turns, but seeing and knowing that there is the lightness beyond all this underneath it all.  The turmoil and the emotions move through life, fluxing and undulating but the lightness of being is always there in the background helping dissolve the negativity. Let the emotions pass through knowing that they are just doing that - passing through.

Detail of "Seeing the Light"

Sashiko Workshop Coming Up

I'll be teaching a basic Sashiko workshop at Intown Quilters in Atlanta January 29th Sunday.

We'll be hand stitching simple cell phone or eyeglass cases

with Sashiko stitching and adding little strips of Japanese print fabric for embellishment,

or in my case, to cover those spots I messed up - we call that design opportunity.

Come join me for the fun!

Click here to sign up!

Colorful Clouds Silk Scarf

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Painting Process

Just for fun I thought I'd show you how I took an old unfinished canvas and am painting over it. Many times the painting underneath will influence the painting I'm working on which I find to be both challenging and inspiring. Because of the interference of the original half finished painting underneath, it can give ideas either for use now or for future reference, ideas that I may not have thought of.

The plan is to have white-ish tree trunks and branches against a dark night sky. I like to play with the negative spaces, those spaces in between that we think we don't see when looking at an actual treescape. The plan was to have different colors painted in these negative spaces, but after having done some of that I didn't like the effect and painted it all in in blues.

As I worked the trunks and branches the painting "speaks" and there is an urge to put a full moon in the background.

As the moon gets painted in, I feel that many of the lower branches need to be painted over and the tree trunks need slimming and  be muted to give a more mystical feeling to the work.

At this point I stop and hang the painting on the wall and let it rest. I want to see it with fresh eyes days or weeks later and make sure this the "feeling" I want to convey through this painting is happening. I will be changing things around and fine tuning certain areas.

The painting below is nowhere near finished but now the basic overall part is done for now. Now comes the "real" fun of finishing it, which may take days or weeks.

Pastel Gingko Leaves

24" h x 30" w oil on canvas

 This might be my last gingko leaves painting for a while. This one is different from my usual darker contrasting background paintings. It has a little kimono design influence in it.

I'm moving on to painting trees next.

detail

Colorful Sparrows Play in the Bamboo Shawl

This flat crepe de chine, light as air silk shawl is a large 22" x 90" work. Colorful sparrows fly playfully amongst the bamboo stalks while a full moon is in the distance. The background is a midnight blueish-purple with little golden-ish spots which might be fireflies.

Something this large is time consuming to draw and paint and a little difficult to handle putting it into the steamer, washing and rinsing. On my height of under 5' it overwhelms me, and can probably be an entire garment if belted and with the proper under clothing! But on a tall person, it'll make a stunning shawl.

Gingko Leaves Obsession

A while back my goal was to cover the walls of one room with gingko leaves paintings. I'm pretty close to achieving that and have been wondering why I have this obsession. Is it the memory of gingko trees, especially those very ancient ones growing on Buddhist temple grounds in Japan, or is it the shape of the leaves that compel me to keep painting over and over not just with oils on canvas, but on silk with dyes?

The gingko leaf shape differs from leaf to leaf and from tree to tree, some triangular versus some that flare out into a more graceful fan shape. Some have a deep slit and others a mere hint of a slit in the center.

But when start appearing across my canvases and silks, I see them moving, falling, blowing across the surface at times moving beyond the canvas edges. And why do I prefer them in motion, forever in flux even though at their final landing spot they will eventually disintegrate and dissolve back into the earth?

Gingko Leaves Against a Full Moon