Flight of Fancy [16'x20', mixed media on 1.5" gallery wrap canvas]

This is my submission to the Federation of Canadian Artist's upcoming juried exhibition called "Muse".  What is it that drives you to create?  We all have a muse...whether we're creating a perfect report for a school project, the perfect Saskatoon berry pie [yum!], or a piece of art.

Sometimes I just feel like throwing colour around so I make "starts".  This canvas began months ago with a lot of random colours and shapes.  One day I picked it back up and imposed a grid system and, as I doodled and glazed I began to see a blue shape emerging.... a "Flight of Fancy".  You can see this piece at the FCA gallery on Vancouver's Granville Island from June 6-18, 2017.  If you're in the Vancouver area drop by and check it out!

Flirty Birds [collage on cradled panel, 8"x10"]

I had some fun paper sitting around... just a wipe off sheet that had some pinks, reds, yellow, greens, and then areas I'd cleaned black paint off my brush.  The combination made me think of crows and since I'm getting ready to teach a 3 hour collage workshop at The Collective Art Market here in Lloydminster, I put this together.  It's a very basic design using brown paper (branches), tissue paper (background), and drawing paper (birds).  I had a lot of fun doing it.  Maybe I'll see you on June 15th....  I hope you enjoy the video!

Movement in Mixed Media

It's been a very busy summer at our house. I've been taking a break from painting due in part to summer activities, and most recently, a very sore right hand. It's funny how important my right hand is to my creative processes! This past few days I've been slowly building up layers on a 24"x36" canvas using my left hand and rags. I slosh on some paint, move it about, and wipe it off in places. Between layers I consider the principles and elements of design. But both the painting and the planning feel all wrong and I think it has to do with using my left hand so much. Argh! Hopefully I'll be right as rain soon. If not, I hope that at least i'll hear soon that using the hand won't cause any damage despite the pain.

Anyhow, after I collaged some highly textured Japanese papers onto my canvas i began to add paint. The images below show some of the stages of development this canvas has gone through. The surface is quite rough and these images don't show that aspect.

Tomorrow I'll post my plans for finishing this piece. Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

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Talisman Roses [16”x20”, acrylic]

This painting has evolved from the chaos created by random stamping, painting into that surface and then, after the focal point declares itself, exploiting it.  I have absolutely no idea whether or not I’m done with this one…  it’s been a challenge to work with this complementary pair – Golden’s Pyrrole Orange & Ultramarine Blue.  I also used just a touch of carbon black in some areas. 

Here are a few of the early photos… 

 

On the right photo I’ve just played around with the two main colors and the beginnings of some stamping.  The second photo [on the right above] I’m arbitrarily  imposing some light areas based on a viewfinder design.  The painting sat like that for some time because I lost all emotional connection to it.  Then I carved myself an abstracted rose/spiral stamp and grabbed this start to play around with it.  Originally, I simply stamped over some of these circular shapes with my rose stamp and started to play with a grid pattern in places.  Eventually, one of those geometric shapes morphed into the vase and I continued to adapt the grid…  primarily I toned down some of the orange with neutral lights and darks…  it was just everywhere!!! 

Below left I’m working back and forth on the grid and then on the floral shapes…  on the right I’m adding darks in the focal area and further developing the grid. 

   

In this latest stage, I lightened some areas in the background grid, straightening some lines, breaking some areas of the darks and evening the flat neutral areas.  I’m at the stage where I will live with it for a while before moving on….  any and all suggestions and/or critiques are welcome.  Cheers!

Collage start 2

This collage is 9”x12” and as I’m looking at it now I see that I’ve messed up as far as the values of the shapes from my viewfinder [shown on the right].  When I’m painting into this collage I’ll work that out.  Cheers!

Abstraction with Collage

Here's a photo of the current state of a piece I am working on. I'm kind of going on a "feed the world" theme here. I saw the outline of a farmer's head and then an african person... and it puttered along with that theme up to this point. Sometimes these things change over a long period of time and I'm sure this will be no exception. Enjoy!

DVD Review - Ann Baldwin's "Telling Stories with Collage and Paint"

Our Monday class is in the middle of a collage unit so viewing Ann Baldwin’s “Telling Stories with Collage and Paint” was timely and inspirational for me. It was also a great art activity for a day when staying vertical was not an option. I love this about art - even when I have to rest my achey back I can still have fun!
Back to the DVD... Ann is really a mixed media painter as opposed to a straight collage artist, so this live workshop video was also a good source of information about working with acrylic paints & mediums. She has a fun and fearlessly loose style based on her belief that virtually anything that happens in the painting that she doesn’t like can be changed. This feels quite freeing for me after working hard to protect the whites and avoid over painting in watercolor.
During the course of the nearly 2 hour workshop, Ann completes a demo painting. She begins with collage, then glazes, textures, re-glazes, and repeats until she is satisfied with the result. Ann shares her thought process as she works through the demo. I found her responses to what she liked and didn’t like, why she put elements in a particular spot and why she abandoned the original theme to follow another most fascinating.
Here are a few specifics that I found helpful:
· Discussion of how to avoid copyright issues – in particular a link to the Copyright Information Center at Cornell University.
· Ann spends some time on the computer upgrading smaller lower quality images to ensure high enough quality for her larger format pieces. She talks about alternatives for this work including incrementally photocopying, printing digitally, etc.
· Golden products are used throughout and since I haven’t worked with many of these products, I found her descriptions of how to work with them useful.
· Nitrile gloves – Ann uses them all the time because many of the pigments she uses are toxic. Also, she finds they give her the freedom to manage all the mucking about in the paints that she likes to do.
· The slowing down stage – I’ve never heard it called this but it was nice to know that others have to force themselves to slow down and even shelve a piece for hours/days while their brain catches up. This happens in every painting I do. It can take anywhere from a few minutes onward to figure out the next move – lots of paintings I’ve started are still stuck and I’m beginning to believe that this is normal. It’s a nice feeling to have the “FINISH IT” pressure off.
· Ann critiques the workshop students’ work and, although I always find these helpful, I’m used to a more direct approach to pointing out problems. Over the past 3 years I’ve benefited most from hearing what could have been done to avoid, or what could be done to correct, etc PROBLEMS in my works as well as in the work of other students. Of course the good must be praised and Ann does a lovely job of that. Possibly the critiques that I would have found most helpful were simply edited out...

I certainly enjoyed this DVD and I’m looking forward to putting the inspiration to good use. As a result of this DVD, I have added half a dozen items to my art “wish list”... Good thing my birthday is coming up ;) Cheers!

Abstract... the end of the beginning

I've pretty much finished with this abstract start... for now. Since last post I added the smaller dots and the little line in the upper right.

At that point I wasn't happy with how it looked. I reviewed my composition notes from last Wednesday's class and decided to darken the bottom left corner and that seemed to improve things quite a bit. Doing the abstract has given me some insight into my own head. For example, I realize that I am very attracted to the play of lights against darks with minor mid-values. And so the journey continues... enjoy your weekend!

ATC Treasure Chest

This ATC is part of a set I am doing for a swap in my class... I think I have until next Monday to come up with the rest. I've got some work to do, believe me. I really enjoy these little projects. I get a sense of accomplishment from working on and finishing these even though they are tiny - same size as a baseball or hockey card.
In order to get myself started on these I grabbed some "starts", found interesting places and cut them out. From that point I just ponder the pattern before me and start making a line here, a wash there, some ink to define this or that... etc. It's lots of fun...
I'm also preparing a book to be altered... it's got a great title and I'll tell you all about that tomorrow. Really, I WILL tell you about it TOMORROW!

Tea Party Monoprint

I worked on this monoprint over the weekend using Yupo for a printing plate. I missed taking a photo of the plate prior to printing because I was in a hurry. This first picture is the Yupo plate after I printed it - not much paint left so I would call the printing process fairly successful.
I began this project with a farm theme in mind. The trees and barn were cut out of drywall mesh and stuck on as a resist. I expected that some paint would seep down into the grid pattern as I applied it with the brayer but the paint mix must have been too dry. The sky started out blue with just a bit of purple but the dioxazine purple is so strong it overpowered the blue. So, I just went with it and played the yellow /purple compliment game. I rolled gamboge on top of the tree area. The dish pattern was done by dampening cotton lace, laying it over the painted yupo, covering with wax paper, brayering over and then lifting the wetted area with a kleenex.
This second picture shows the resulting monoprint. I left myself a decent sized light value area thinking I would do an image transfer there.
Tomorrow's post - how to nearly wreck and [hopefully] rescue a painting from disaster... stay tuned!

Roots Grown Down Deep (14"x11)

Have the roots of your being firmly and deeply planted in Him. Colossians 2:7 (Amplified Bible)

This is the current status of one of those monoprint starts I did 2 weeks ago. I've struggled with how to progress these things and decided to apply the same methodology I described in my "Composition 101" post earlier this week. I just needed something to get me to the next step. Sure enough, I got an idea about how to develop this one as soon as I got through step 1 (5-7 main shapes) and step 2 (value study thumbnails). Then the fun began!

I wanted a figure with head bowed and searched for that - no dice. Then I found one just about right on the net and I sketched it up on plain paper, transferred the outline to my monoprint and began painting. I began in bottom right corner and used quinacridone rose/blue mix to darken the value around the figure. In the left bottom I developed some boxes that came through on the monoprint into a checked, multi-colored area. The window was a bottle for a while - then that didn't make sense so I morphed it. And that about sums up how this business works. Synergy... one step builds on the previous and so on until you get an idea where to take the piece. I can just about here my readers' say "well, that was as clear as mud". Sorry, you either have to take my word for it or try it yourself. It's hard to describe. It feels like I'm almost done here. I'm considering whether the crossed leaf stamp in the top left is too white. I'll have another look when the sun is out to check the values. Enjoy!

Yupo plate ready for printing

This is a Yupo painting that I'll be transferring to BFK reeves paper tomorrow. I've left a space white where I'll apply an image transfer as I finish the piece. I've aimed for a cruciform composition for the printed image. I had a hard time holding myself to the cruciform in mirror image... because of course the printed image will be the reverse of this image. I'll see how it goes when I print keeping in mind that the print will be lighter in value than this plate. Enjoy your weekend!

Monoprint...

My first monoprint! I love the colors and how the impression of the golden light shining through the "buildings"... it's pretty abstract and I'm sure I will have some additions and changes but here's how it looked last Monday after the class.
We'll be working on more monoprints as well as progressing the artwork from the print stage to a finished painting over the next few weeks. I'm really enjoying seeing all my old painting friends from class... Enjoy!
For a short explanation of the process of monoprinting click here.

100th Post - City Lights (14"x10")

Here is my first painting in acrylic - Golden Fluids... SO much fun! I really wanted to play with my new reds - quinacridone crimson, quinacridone red, quinacridone magenta, quinacridone burnt orange. Yes, I'm back to the quins... and a few other colors thrown in to make a nice pattern. One of the blue blobs looked a bit like a figure so I developed it and another... and on it goes. It feels like a big city outdoor party... or something. I enjoyed playing with the paints and getting a feel for how they flow wet in wet. And the colors dried brighter instead of lighter - a nice addition to my watercolor paints. Stay tuned!

Cold Shoulder (14"x10")

This piece developed on the side yesterday when I was waiting for something else to dry. I had some paint mixed and some droppers handy and I just started to puddle around. Until the very end I drew/painted with a glass dropper. I dropped mixed paint - most were not my normal colors... cad orange, viridian, brown madder, cobalt blue. I used a bit of green gold (becoming a fav of mine), my standby ultramarine blue, and a bit of black ink. I continued to drop color here and there, sprayed water, and drew shapes, words and people. I found myself thinking about the webs the world weaves and everything that gets thrown at us by "the world". Eventually an arm and shoulder grew out of the mess and I emphasized it. It's an uncomfortable piece to look at... probably reflecting the state of things in my world these days lol.

It's been an interesting few weeks and I keep coming back to the words of Christ in John 16:33 - "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." In this piece I've depicted my right shoulder turned away from "the fiery darts" and the blue represents peace which comes in waves - as in the real world. I added a "world" circle on the left with "over come" surrounding it. Interesting that we are guaranteed trouble and offered peace. Good thing, eh? ("huh" if you're south of the border;o) I'd say enjoy but that word might not apply to this painting. Have a look...