More Projects

I have several works in progress at the moment, two of which are below.  I started with a page from a wallpaper book and painted with acrylic, oil sticks, and maybe something else.  I am concurrently working on three canvasses so these will be sitting for quite a while.  Maybe Should finish what I start before moving on.

Lemons and Lemonade

I was planning to make some coasters with porcelain tiles.  I had envisioned white tiles with decal images.  Since I don't know anything about ceramics, I consulted with one of my studio mates and followed her directions.  When my tiles came out of the kiln, I did not recognize them.  It seems that they were fired at the wrong temperature and they melted.  They were actually kind of cool and this is what I made.

I glued them onto a wood panel that I painted black.

More Workshop

Prior to painting in Teresa Girard's workshop, we did some quick charcoal exercises.  Some of them may have potential as studies for future works or further development.  I sprayed with some fixative so I am hoping that they don't smudge too much.

Workshop

I had the pleasure of taking a two day class with Teresa Girard.  I have admired her work for a number of years and the class did not disappoint.  I left artistically energized and I am looking forward to applying what I learned for more pieces.  This is my best effort of the day:

These are my usual marks but what is different is the dark colors.

These are some quick color studies.  The middle one was made in two minutes by cleaning off the pallet.  I did not have a a lot of paint left on my pallet.  What a great class.

Critters and Creatures

I didn't want too much time to pass between posts so I thought I would share more photos from Florida.  It seems like a long time ago and the weather here is a little on the cool side.  I am anxiously awaiting eighty degree.  And yes, the alligator was that close.

Progression of WorkI

I thought I would go step by step on how my latest piece came to be.  I started off with a layer of collage and some gray paint.  I used some pattern pieces, tissue and some hand made paper.  As an afterthought I put some red paint from the top of the tube and then used a small brayer to smear some of it around.

This is actually step 3 because I had painted over the whole thing with transparent yellow oxide and I kind of liked it.  I wanted to get out of my usual thing by making waves with black, white, more gray, burnt sienna and some ugly brown paint.

 

I wanted to get rid of that ugly brown paint so I covered everything over with white and then softened it with a paper towel and water.

This became the final version but the thing I like best about working with paper is that you don't have to like all of it.

This is the final version.  I cropped out the right hand side and I am saving cropped ends of papers for some future project.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of you.

Road Trip

We took a short road trip to Miami to visit family.  The weather was spectacular which was a pleasant reprieve from winter.  Ever since we came back, the sun has not appeared and it has been cold and rainy which begs the question:  why did we live here and not in some place with warm weather?

We did some fun things like an airboat ride in the Everglades, a trip to a botanical garden, and an art tour of the Overton section of Miami and its graffiti walls.  Lots of good eating too.

More Fun With Oil Sticks

I had some more fun with the oil sticks.  I just decided to let loose and do whatever.

I feel like this is a little crazy.

I have three kinds of oil sticks - very old but still useable Shiva sticks, Sennelier, and an oil bar from Windsor Newton.  By far the best was the Windsor Newton oil bar.  It was soft, rich in color and won't dry up.  I also liked the Sennelier.  It is harder than the Windsor but still very easy to use. The Shivas get dry forming a skin and you have to peel it off which can get a bit messy and they are the hardest of the three.  All have nice color and can be used together.