New Canvas Works

I am continuing to work on the ideas from my mindfulness sketchbook pages.  I am still working on the boundaries in the landscape subject and the sketchbook pages are an extension of that. 

I am specifically looking at the shapes that fields form, I love how no matter how hard the farmer tries, they are never square due to things like hillocks, burns, buildings, pylons, rocks, uneven ground.  The shapes of the fields are endlessly fascinating to me.

So drawing those shapes and expanding on them became a great exercise in meditation and the results are now creeping into my everyday work.

It is harder to go bigger, so I am doing it gradually, from 6 or 7 inch square in my previous post to one that is 10inches square and one that is 16inches square.  I am challenging myself with the square format to see how the shapes work.  I don't want them plonked in the middle, so I am experimenting with the placement of them as well.  I also want to do some long thin formats too.

More ideas than time, as usual!

The first one is more or less finished, it is 10"x10" and very precise.  I worked in a very strict, planned manner, drawing things out before transferring them to the canvas and keeping the paint as even as I could.

The second one, is still in progress, sorry for the slightly fuzzy photo, even though we have daylight until the wee hours here in Scotland, we do have cloud and that has reduced the light quality. 

Here I have worked in a much more intuitive way, applying paint, oil pastel and charcoal and letting the shapes form themselves.  I am also applying the paint in a more textured manner.  Although much harder to work this way, I do find it more satisfying and more painterly.

I still have a way to go with this, but I like how it is progressing.

Summer of Colour - Week 3

Actually finishing earlier this week, here are two pieces completed for the Summer of Colour challenge using two purples and a yellow.  The first one I use the purples with just a touch of yellow and the second one uses a wash of yellow over the entire painting, apart from the reserved shapes, with more layers of yellow in some selected areas.

I couldn't choose a favourite, so I am including both!

Here are the mixes I used:  The darker purple is ultramarine and magenta, the lighter purple is cerulean, magenta and white and the yellow is cad yellow medium with a little white.

Summer of Colour WK2

Working on board this time, out of the sketchbook for a change, here is this week's Summer of Colour painting.  The colours we were to work with are two pinks and an orange.




















I have been using pastels and acrylics and these are my chosen colours: magenta, pale pink and flourescent orange.

It is a lovely colour-scheme, apparently a big hit in previous years, I can see why.
 

Summer of Colour - Wk 1

The colours for this week are two blues and a green.  I was afraid this was a bit unexciting for me, but by mixing my own blues and by making a nice bright green, I felt the colour addict within me was satisfied.

I mixed ultramarine blue with a little paynes grey for the darker blue, then I  mixed cerulean blue with a little white for a contrasting blue.  For the green, I used pthalo turquoise with lemon yellow.

Sketchbook - Finished

I decided to work in my sketchbook and on a small canvas (10" x 15"), the sketchbook is finished, but the canvas has more work to be done on it.

The Canvas - Work in Progress

Boundaries Series - Push it

During my mindfulness sketchbook sessions, I find I spend more time drawing with charcoal on top of previously painted pages.

Liking the results in the sketchbook, I decided to try it out on a prepared canvas (the one in the last post, that looked like a snow scene).

First I painted over the lovely burnt paper effect (it is OK, I now know how to replicate it if or when I need to), with a few layers of acrylic paint.  I always start with darker colours and work towards lighter as I progress.  Well, when I say always, I mean mostly (sometimes I deviate from this).

Now, I rather liked what I had so far and I really didn't want to change it that much, but, you know and I know, that to progress with art, we have to push it - we have to push it real good!

So I pushed it and I am not entirely happy with the result, I overworked it and lost the translucency that I a wanted in the negative space, I was battling with the texture, it was making the drawn and calligraphic lines that I wanted broken and untidy, the tonal contrast is a bit too harsh to my eyes.

But I am happy that I tried and I have pinned this up on the wall, where it will stay with many other experiments until I AM happy with the results!

Serendipity in Art

It is great to let go of the control-freak inside (well, sometimes).  I was prepping some paper ready for painting and just love what happened here. 

What I am trying to achieve is a sense of perspective in this painting.  You have to imagine it upside down for this, I wanted texture of cracks and creases, with finer ones in the distance (top of the painting) and I wanted harder, larger ones in the foreground (bottom of the painting), so I used tissue for the finer ones and dug out an old fax roll for the harder creases.

Pleased with that aspect of the work, I then applied some lettering through a stencil using texture paste.  Now, texture paste takes ages to dry and I am impatient, I wanted to get started asap, so I blasted it with the hairdryer.  (sidenote here, I have managed to blow out one hairdryer in six months by using it in the studio, but it was an old one).

As I moved the hairdryer over the lettering, I noticed that the fax paper was beginning to darken, even after I stopped.

I thought it looked rather interesting like this, but even so, I will be painting over it.  At least I know how to achieve this effect if I ever want to!

New Goddess Shapes

When I first started making the goddesses, I filled a few sketchbook pages with ideas.  I started with the simpler ones at first and they have been very successful, but I felt like trying out a new shape.

I had initially intended to make them flat, almost two dimensional because I wanted to stamp and stencil on them, but I felt they are much better with some form.  It just makes the stamping and stenciling a wee bit harder, but it is worth the extra effort.

After much persuasion by friends, I have finally set up a Facebook Page, specifically for my art.  It was simpler to do than I expected and I hope I can keep up with it.  Oh, I even managed to put a link on the right, here.

Talisman Experiments

I seem to have more ideas for talisman variations than time to make them!  I had an idea that I wanted to do a black one, initially intending for the background and beads to be all black (or variations), but, somehow, colour has crept in.  I have started to name them, this one is named after the Welsh goddess, Cerridwyn.

I have been experimenting with arty photos of the talismans.  I am gradually getting them listed in my Etsy shop at last and I thought the different angles would add a bit of pizzazz to the listings.  Although I have had this Etsy shop for a couple of years now, I have never used it properly, partly because my stock tends to sell before I get the chance to list anything.

Golden Acrylic Paints

From L-R, Ultramarine, Violet, Magenta, Crimson, Azo Gold, Cad Yellow Med

I have mostly painted with watercolours or oils and used to get very frustrated with acrylics.  When I decided to work in mixed media at the end of last year, I had to come to terms with needing to use acrylic paint.  As a compromise, I decided to order in some Golden Opens.  I love them!

I decided to do some paint swatches to get a feel for the colours.  They are all quite transparent, some more so than others, particularly the ultramarines.  This becomes more evident in the second row, where I have added some Open medium and water to thin them.

On the third row, I increased their opacity by adding white, while that works, it does lessen the intensity of the colours.

On the fourth row, I added some ultramarine blue to each colour, which results in some lovely purples and greens.

Finally, I thought I would add some yellow to the original colours, which has resulted in a warm palette of oranges and greens.

I intend to get some more colours when I next place an order with the supplier.  I can see I would benefit from a cooler blue, a cerulean would be good and maybe a cooler yellow.

It is fun and useful, to do swatches when you get new paints, it helps to familiarise yourself with them.

Talisman Progress

I started making the talismans in February and struggled with new techniques and had quite an uphill journey figuring out how to best assemble all the elements to ensure they lasted well (I was determined not to use glue).

The hardest part for me, at the beginning, was using the polymer clay, but I feel so much more accomplished with the material now and, although I am no quicker at making them, I do feel the latest goddesses are tidier and more polished.

I also feel I have improved other technical aspects like the background is now on heavy watercolour paper and not canvas to avoid the frayed edges I got with canvas.  I am more confident with my sewing machine, in adding all the elements.  I now varnish the background before adding the goddess, which helps keep dust off and I am much better at soldering the jewellery elements as well as being more experimental with them.

SOLD

These two are the latest, recently finished - I am having so much fun with them!

A Few Sketchbook Pages

I posted about my sketchbooks a couple of months ago and how I like to call them Carnets de Travail after Elisabeth Couloigner's workbooks.  I feel a bit wrong calling them sketchbooks, when very little actual sketching gets done in them, I just paint, experiment and try out ideas.

Anyway, I have been working in them some more and here are a few pages that I have finished recently.

 

 

Juggling Projects

The Liminal Project

I think I have art ADHD, I have so many projects on the go at once - at least there is no time to get bored!

I have more talismans in the works and I started the larger 2' x 3' painting over the weekend and it is coming along great, but needs some more layers.  You can also see in the background of the above photo, there is a board (60 x 80cm, roughly 2'x3') being prepped with texture, ready for another boundaries painting.

As well as the talismans and the large boundaries piece, I sketched out my design for the embroidery piece for the Liminal Project (which is part of a larger work, Embroidered Digital Commons, a long-term collaborative project started in 2002), now I have the fun task of choosing colours.

I rather like the variety of all these projects - they are all different, yet tie in to each other in some way, so although my output may seem scattered, it is, in fact, quite focused.

Newest Talisman: The Dancer

While I get on with my larger "boundaries" piece, here is another talisman I finished recently.  I manipulated the figure before baking, so she has a dynamic twist and it looks like she is dancing with her hula hoop.

Hopefully, I will have something to show on the latest boundaries painting, I am still at the early texturising stage, currently.

Winged Talisman

This talisman has already sold and will be flying off to her new owner tomorrow.  I love the wings (as does my customer).

More talismans (sans wings) are nearing completion, will post them once the finishing touches are made.  I have worked hard on them this weekend and it has been such great fun!

Little Talismans

Yet more works in progress, these are the starts of a series of 4 inch talisman pieces that shall incorporate a lot of mixed media surface work before they are completed.

 

They are good fun to work on, I hope to get at least one finished by the end of the weekend.

Sneak Previews

I have some small pieces that are going to be more elaborate with more 3D elements, but I shall not say too much, just leave this picture here as a hint of things to come.

Sketchbooks

Can you call them sketchbooks if very little actual sketching gets done in them?  One of my favourite artists, Elisabeth Couloigner, calls them Carnets de Travail - workbooks.  I like the sound of that.

Anyway, I have pages and pages in my Carnets of mainly paint, texture and some scribing, here are a few.

Scribble Sunday

10"x10" on Canvas

I love the scribble on this painting, it was my handwriting, gone over the top several times, within a masked area, which forced it to be confined within specific boundaries.

Fearless Friday

Sometimes, the idea you have in your head of how a piece should look, is not what you necessarily end up with!

The triptych that I envisioned for the gym was to have three running figures - one on each panel and this is what it looked like.

 

But then I photographed them and looked at them on my computer and a chance image appeared on my screen - this:

The Finished Paintings

And I really, really liked it!  So now I had a dilemma, keep all three figures or remove the first two.  Luckily I had used Golden Open acrylics and I had a bit of time to scrub the first two images off, keeping that final figure.  

The client was delighted, phew!

Triplicate Tuesday

I have worked these three together, so all their colours are uniform.  Each has it's own voice, though, so they could stand alone.

Usually, I begin my paintings with the darks first and then move to the lighter ones in subsequent layers (of which there are many), but I decided to experiment with the light, transparent colours first and move towards the darker, more opaque colours as the painting progressed.  It has resulted in quite vibrant lights, requiring less paint to get them to shine. There also are subtle colour gradations as transparent colour on transparent colour merges to form another colour.  It means that there is less of a need to mix colours prior to application, they mix on the canvas.  This was how I used to paint in watercolours and makes for some lovely, bright mixes.

My paintings have been rather difficult to photograph, but I decided to get the Canon SLR out and I am pleased to see that it picks up the texture much better.  You can just see on the first one, the top left corner has crumpled leaves as well as modeling paste text (from Rumi's Meditations).

I intend to use them together as they are to occupy a large wall space in a gym.  There will be more done to them before they are completed, so watch this space.  Will I be able to post another Fearless Friday or will it be a Failure Friday?