That Time I Created a Painting by Louis Corsair #ArtsandCrafts

Back in 2018, when the world was still normal, the library I worked for was hosting a staff art show. Our supervisors asked us all to create a piece of art. 

I wanted to do something dazzling. A painting! Not just any painting! A special painting!

VISION: The first thing I did was figure out what medium I wanted. What came to mind right away was a wax painting (otherwise known as an encaustic painting). 

 

The photo above is the winner of the local art show our library hosted months earlier; I took the photo; the painting, “Beginning” was created by Yuko Royston. This technique uses colored waxes, which the painter manipulates them on canvas. Who wouldn’t want to produce one of those?

Unfortunately, they require a well-ventilated workspace. I didn’t have that, so I had to settle for a run-of-the-mill painting. 

But I had such grand a grand vision of the final product! In my head, I pictured a Klimt, something like his “Judith I.”Ooooohhh! Gold foil! Paint! Klimt also has some mysterious paintings. So, I thought, why not?

MATERIALS: Once I decided that I wanted to paint a piece of art, I started buying stuff. I definitely needed some paint. I had none. I also didn’t have any materials. I was like a kid in a toy store!

I bought too much. I bought things I didn’t need. I bought things I didn’t use. I couldn’t find any gold foil to save my life. 

My canvas was too big for the easel I bought. I wanted a big canvas. BIG. 

One brush set wasn’t enough. I got several. 

SKILL AND TALENT: I discovered that you need skill to handle the brushes. And I also discovered you need talent to bring what’s in your head to the canvas. 

I penciled an outline of what I wanted: A triskelion, with a circle in each hollow, which I would fill with a drawing. The drawing in each was supposed to be a scene from my life; the first would have shown the coffee bean fields of El Salvador; the second would have shown a scene from my time in the military; the third would have shown a scene from my life now, possibly LAX or the library I worked at.

 

Above is an example of the type of triskelion I wanted, which I drew in Adobe Illustrator and refined in Photoshop.

I drew the triskelion and the circles on the canvas. But that was it. The problem was that drawing on the larger canvas was difficult as heck. You should have seen me on it, around it, side to side, trying to pencil in a drawing.

MORE MATERIALS: I then had the idea of painting the scenes in the circles separately and then attaching them to the bigger canvas. A smaller canvas would be easier for me to draw on. 

So, I bought more stuff. Smaller canvases. And it looked like it would work. I had a decent drawing on one of them. But before I got to work on the other two, a problem presented itself: How would I attach the smaller canvases onto the bigger one?

Glue? I bought glue. But the glue might come off or it might droop.

Wires? I bought wires. 

Screws? I bought screws. 

Unfortunately, the canvas frame didn’t have enough wood for me to attach wires or screw in screws. There is only enough to nail the canvas onto it (the back of the canvas looks like a window).

I bought wood and cut it to size. And I attached a piece to the back of the canvas and nailed it in place. And that looked like it would work.

But the construction was flimsy and doomed to fall apart. The reason for that, likely, is that I’m not a carpenter, nor would I ever make a fine carpenter.

NEW VISION: So, I kept the triskelion and ditched the circles and the drawings. I went for something simpler. 

How about I paint my hands onto it? Recreate the Ahimsa image with my actual hands? Maybe add the universe on the background? Oh, clever! Neat! Universal! Let’s do that!

By this point, I had been working on that blasted painting for over a month. I was tired. And I began to see that I had overspent on this project. 

I finished up the triskelion (in silver paint, since I had no foil). Everything else, including the “universe” was black. 

NOT-SO-PRO TIP: Paint gets everywhere. Plan accordingly. If your living room doubles as your studio, it’s going to end up everywhere. Everywhere. You think dusting is bad? Ha!

So, (I’m laughing right now), so, I finished the painting. And it dawns on me that there is no wire in the back to hang it. The painting was going to go on a wall. It had to have a wire.

EVEN MORE MATERIALS: I had to go to the Home Depot and pick up more stuff. Ironically, I didn’t have enough material from before to complete the task.

And voila! Finished. I took it in and they added the painting to other pieces of art created by the staff. The whole time it hanged from a wall, I wondered if it was going to fall off. 

And here it is:

That smile on my face reflects the relief I felt after finishing that thing. It was the first and last painting I ever attempted.

Sadly, I got rid of it. Otherwise, I might have to share the story I just shared with you. 

Yeah, I’m not a painter. 

Truth. 

LC 2021

The Quantum of the Past: Redux!

An Elohim Trilogy Novel

Louis Corsair

Genre: Urban Fantasy / Dark Fantasy 

Date of Publication: December 2020

ISBN: B08J5BGHV4

ASIN: B00IQX0WXI

Number of pages: 633

Word Count: 166,000 words

Cover Artist: Ravven Kitsune

Tagline: A mentally unstable army war veteran, Miles Trevor, seeks to redeem himself by helping a Sprite return to her magical home world and fulfill her destiny. 

Book Description:

The Past that haunts Miles Trevor is relentless, with even its most fundamental fragment... 

Iraq war veteran, Miles Trevor, has survivor's guilt after living through an insurgent attack that killed the rest of his platoon, but left him unharmed. Now, he wants nothing more than to return to the military and be a part of the mission once again. Yet, his mind is crumbling; he sometimes hallucinates, seeing the soldiers who died that day. With madness looming in the shadows, the army will never grant him his wish. 

So, when the supernatural--in the form of a teen Sprite named Kendra--offers him a chance for redemption, he takes it. All the girl wants is to go home to a magical city called Lusphera to fulfill her holy destiny, and find out why her father wants to stop her. 

But with Miles losing his grip on sanity, he may not be the best man for this task. In fact, he may be her biggest threat...

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Excerpt

THE BATTLE OF THE RAVEN MOUNTAINS

As the questers and the nomads drew their weapons, the roars of the mountain lion clansmen stopped. And they could hear hushed movement everywhere, concealed by the darkness. This chilled Miles’ bones more than the night cold ever did.

And then the mountain lion clan dove out of the darkness and attacked and the wild men and questers fought them with apprehension, for they still thought them allies. And in the thick confusion, the puma-men in the host betrayed them; they leaped onto their former comrades and murdered anyone they attacked.

Another burst of mountain lion warriors attacked from the slopes above and from those below. They were in tight packs and tore apart anyone unfortunate enough to meet them alone, even the bear warriors. But the questers and the nomads caught on and began a hasty defense that mutated into a counter-attack.  

Kendra flew high above them and summoned a ball of light as bright as a small sun and as large as her body. This allowed Zan and Draxel to use their power. The two Shadow Walkers were like gophers popping in and out of shadows, slashing the traitors to pieces.

And although Raza was of their same race, he fought unlike them. This warrior leaped from place to place, his agility equal to the puma and mountain lion men, piercing some with the spear, some with the pearl-handled knife; his every move economical, his every strike precise. And sometimes, when a difficult party faced him, he sank into the shadows with them and emerged later, but alone. How like a dancer he was then, the ancient Symphony of Conflict guiding his steps. He was a glory to behold--proud Achilles would fear this man!

The light helped the others as well. Trinath, son of Holgoth, held the Staff of the Waterborne over his head and it glowed like a star, which caused Kendra’s light to fire glowing spears that neutralized many enemies.

And the Tsörs unleashed their weapons. Through the air flew a Hrät here and there and they always caught some cat lunging and they kept their Hrüms in hand for any who dared come within arm’s length of them and the sickening tunks and chunks of sharpened metal on flesh and bone made these weapons red, red with death.

And Polk used the claymore for its edge and weight, chopping and piercing. Next to him, Lord Pharos used the advantage he had in the air and Thunderbolt whistled with calculated and nobler assaults that were no less deadly.

And the wolf-men howled with passion and created their own packs and they met puma and mountain lion clansmen and their ferocious battles were gory displays of tooth and claw as friendships and alliances were forgotten and survival of the fittest reigned.

Miles, Lord Pharos, and Hyman created a triple wall around Kendra when she descended. The captain shouted off more orders and the elk and deer men formed a circle around them with bears intermixed and it alarmed them to see how few were left. Fortunately, the holy sword released wall after wall of electricity that augmented the crack and thunder of Hyman’s pistol shots.

Together they held back wave after wave of the traitors. And then, as suddenly as the battle had begun, there came a hush.

“They won’t attack now,” said Hyman, his pistol in one hand and the silver saber in the other. “We destroyed their only advantage, surprise. But methinks it best if we leave this place.”

“The trees!” said Tsör Florentina. “We can retreat to the Woods of Uzra Doren.”

“Problem is we gotta reach dem,” said Polk, his claymore red and his makeshift armor showing off fresh dents and claw marks.

They started back down cautiously, in a giant circle of strength. The furious sounds of their footsteps were the only talk between them and their eyes were ever-vigilant, using what remained of Kendra’s light. And many wondered where the teeth and claws would come from and if they would be fast enough to stop them.

The most maddening aspect of this retreat was that the mountain lion and puma men began to feast on the fallen and on those too injured to move with the retreating army; the desperate pleas of the victims would become high pitched and then stop all at once. And the traitors were not shy about the sounds they made as they ate or about launching stripped bones onto the trail--this new carnage made some of the elk and deer men nervous and a few trembled and gave out calls of alarm.

About the Author:

Louis Corsair is an eight-year veteran of the United States Army. Currently living in Los Angeles, California, he spends his time reading books, going on walks, writing, and enjoying the occasional visit to the beach—while trying to earn an honest buck. As a Los Angeles writer, he feels the weight of famous Los Angeles novelists, like Raymond Chandler, John Fante, Nina Revoyr, among others.

In 2021, he hopes to finish the Elohim Trilogy and its connected novels, including The Wizards Collide, and Apotheosis: Book Three of the Elohim Trilogy.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5804069.Louis_Corsair

http://louiscorsair.blogspot.com

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