Mantra 1

This is a piece I just finished the other day, it's called "Mantra 1".  It's 12 5/8"x 18" in size and oil on masonite.  This was an extremely different type of painting that I was used to doing.  I hadn't painted in a while, and was feeling that itch, so I just took a piece of masonite I had lying around, coated it with matte medium, and just started painting a springbok antler I own.  No drawing, just paint.  I can't think of the last time I did that, possibly never.  It came out looking pretty good, and I then started turning the painting into, what I thought was a cool concept.  A couple days later I looked at it after a particularly hard day at the workplace.  I realized why I was in such a bad mood, the painting I had been staring at for the past few days was awful.  It was really stupid.  I was taking the life out of the antler that I had so lovingly painted.  So I took up a mixture of burnt umber, ultramarine, payne's grey, and alizarin, and painted out everything except the antler.  As I was doing this I started gently brushing over the edges of the antler and it started getting nicely smokey, as I did it more, it truly transformed the painting into something of which I am extremely proud.  I can't wait to get started on pursuing this subject matter further.  It reminds me of what my thoughts look like when I concentrate very hard and focus on a subject, hence the title.  I hope you all like it, cause I'm very excited by it, and will be delving into this subject matter further.