acrylic painting
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Friday, April 16th, 2010
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Paintings as shown are not to scale in comparison to one another
The Dancing With Trees Art Exhibition celebrates the importance of trees and forests throughout history, portraying their diversity and relationships through a variety of creative associations. Twenty three of the paintings in this collection are on exhibit in the Steinhauer Trust Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, May 1st through June 30th, 2010. Opening Reception Saturday May 1st, 12:45 – 4:00 p.m.
All life forms on this planet proliferated, continue to flourish, and ultimately depend on the existence of trees. While the message is urgent, I consider humanity’s role on the planet as positive, with the statement that creativity is our greatest asset; that “Our carbon footprint is worthy”. Further, creative thinking is our most primal, yet highly advanced and ever-evolving contribution toward solutions to healing wrongs done and changing ingrained habits to ones that are more appreciative of the environment in general.
Purchase Art here Purchase Photography here
2D Pine Cone
Monday, April 12th, 2010
2D Pine Cone, diagonal 28 x 28 x 1 inches, acrylics on woven canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted, signed on the back so as not to intrude on the design. This is the 2nd attempt with larger woven canvas strips, hanging diagonally on a superimposed blue background.
More often than not, allowing some imperfections to show through says “a human made this”. Still, quality ought to be the result, and it wasn’t working (see version #1 below). The crooked pattern on the first woven canvas was impossible to correct, which I tried over and over many times. Then I made pine bristles from threads pulled from the sides of the canvas, painted various shades of green: time consuming and experimental, and also not successful, so I started all over with a new rewoven frame, above.
Left, April 8th: 2D Pine Cone, first version
There were second thoughts about opting to go the imperfect route in the weaving process right from the start. The canvas strips are not all the same size, a deliberate choice, and I assumed it wouldn’t matter, but the pattern of scales relied on the woven accuracy. The color combos are interesting, but things should be a bit straighter.
March 6th and 7th: 2D Pinecone, 28 x 28 inches, woven canvas strips, acrylics. Work in progress shows 1) weaving and 2) a very rough paint-sketch on the primed canvas.
Norway Maple: finished, combined posts
Friday, April 9th, 2010
Norway Maple in Madison, Wisconsin, 36 x 48 x 2 inches acrylics and modeling gel on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted, narrow frame, finished April 9th
March 9th: Subtle changes since last post…have been working more on tones in the background, which weren’t planned initially; I had hoped to use only pure colors without the usual layering, but it’s otherwise too hard to look at. Also am connecting a few shapes horizontally, and it’s almost “there”, but 2D Pinecone was started in the meantime to avoid overworking this.
A Heart Filled to the Brim
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
Above: finished final details yesterday. Started Aug.7th: A Heart Filled to the Brim, 36 x 48 x 2 inches, Water soluble graphite, acrylics on canvas. On exhibit along with Polypore Fungi February through May at the Oxide Gallery, Denton, Texas
An excerpt from the song, I Don’t Believe by Paul Simon on the CD, Surprise:
I don’t believe a heart can be filled to the brim
then vanish like mist as though life were a whim.
Maybe the heart is part of the mist
And that’s all that there is and could ever exist.
A portrait of Alzheimer’s honoring my Grandmother, my Mother-in-law (whose portrait this is, and whose 80th birthday is in two days), and now recently my own Mother who is in the earliest stages; and with empathy for all those afflicted, including the families dealing with the awful emotional reverberations caused by this disease.
Here are a few websites providing information about Alzheimer’s Disease
http://www.alz.org/index.asp
http://www.alzheimersrxtreatment.com/learnaboutalz.html
http://www.alzheimers.org/
Norway Maple, work in progress
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
No title yet, work in progress: 36 x 48 x 2 inches acrylics, will sculpt edges of leaves with modeling paste medium on canvas. Gallery wrapped sides painted. The watercolor classes really helped with awareness of color choices, keeping those colors pure and marks fresh, and also a desire to leave more abstract elements alone; less realism and more expressionism. All of those things will be magnified in this painting.
After today, blogging and Artwork will be infrequent until mid-January. Driving up to western Canada, there will be plenty of snow-covered trees and winter photo opportunities along the way to Alberta, B.C. and back. Working up until the last possible moment, I started this painting of purple Maple leaves that were seen in Madison, WI during late August. Modeling/Molding paste will be applied, then painted with acrylics when dry, this will be a 3 dimensional (ish!) painting, similar to Polypore Fungi (also see this earlier posting of that painting).
Happy Holidays everyone!
Learning to give critique
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Creating Art and talking about are truly two different ways of seeing; the theory of right and left brain thinking is matter-of-fact. As an Artist it takes some effort to ”switch brains” and reflect on the processes and progress of work in order to accompany my Art with writing on this blog, so I’m really impressed with the mature quality of the critiques given by students at Olive Stevens Elementary School of paintings on their school Art blog every month.
In collaboration with Oxide Gallery, the Denton school has started a blog where students – or anyone else actually – can give a critique of a different work of Art each month. This month the comments regard the recently finished Sounds of Silence, which is also at the gallery.
Exhibition Opening Dec. 1st
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Upcoming exhibition: monthly featured artist at Oxide Gallery in Denton, TX. Among the items on exhibit: most of the Magic Square series, Dawn at Bell Rock, Sounds of Silence, Polypore Fungi, Shadows of Summer, Eastern White Pine, and three of the vintage chairs. Opening Reception Tuesday, December 1st, 6:00 p.m. – 8 p.m., and the show runs until December 31st. Click here to view the work and price list.
http://oxidegallery.com/Flier-December.html
Left: Chapala Winds, Mexico, 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted, 1/16 of the Magic Square series, all painted as various aspects of trees for the Dancing With Trees Exhibition collection..
Dawn at Bell Rock
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
Dawn at Bell Rock, Arizona 24 x 18 x 2 inches acrylics on canvas, finished today. Below: phases 01, 02 and 07
Sounds of Silence
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Sounds of Silence, 36 x 24 x 2 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted – finished today. After a second application of mask medium only on the snowflakes this time, some unbleached titanium and yellow ochre brought color back to the trunks. Snowflake mask was then removed. Still deciding on a price for this, and Dawn at Bell Rock also.
Oct 13th, above: Phase 01 and 02
Oct 14th, Phase 03 and 04: Mask medium removal, then highlighting snowflakes.
P.S. View Virginia Wieringa’s coincidental blog entry: a relevant poem by Thomas Merton, and an icon painting entitled Holy Silence.
500X Gallery: Landscape
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
October 10 – 31st, 2009 500X Gallery Open Show: Landscape, 500 Exposition Ave. Dallas, TX
Opening Reception Saturday, October 10th, 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
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Saint Catherine's Sunset, 11 x 11 x 3 acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted | |
| $350.00 |  |
______________________________ more news: ________________________________
Oxide Gallery 1st Year Anniversary celebration today, Tuesday October 6th, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Happy Anniversary Oxide Gallery!
I’ll be giving a demo on the use of Masking Fluid in acrylics paintings, so come and reveal one painting by helping to peel off the rubberized mask – I don’t even know what it looks like underneath, so it will be a surprise for all of us. Techniques on applying the fluid will be demonstrated on another painting already in progress. Three pieces accepted in the current show at Oxide Gallery are:
To purchase these and of this work please visit the Exhibitions Page.
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