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.

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.

 

 

Zooming in with the Camera

I recently posted this large (24" x 36") completed canvas as part of my boundaries series and I think I mentioned that it has texture that wasn't clearly visible in the photo, so I took the time to get up close and personal with the camera and capture some of those textures.  It helps to get raking light from the side and at certain times of the day, this is possible.

Firstly, this is a shot from the upper central area, and here you can see the raised lettering, raised paint and the surface application of hand-scribing.

Here, from the top right, you can see the detail of the raised handwritten text, layers of paint (including buried raised text) as well as loosely woven fabric (scrim) at the bottom.

A photo taken just below the last one, shows some interesting edges of the fabric and complex colour layering.  The orange shows up beautifully here!

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.

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?