Dancing With Trees Collection
« Previous EntriesFraming on “Northern Delights” update
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
Northern Delights, acrylics on canvas, 24 x 36 inches on top of a 36 x 48 inches canvas, work on framing in progress. Left: Day 01, above: Day 02
Frame, Day 02: The abstract framed around impressionist styles don’t really belong together, but I kind of like it anyway; so unexpected..unpredictable..rebellious!
Frame, Day 01: I could never find the right frame for this painting — ones I tried ended the picture too abruptly at the edges, yet I knew it needed something, so yesterday I mounted it onto another canvas. I’ve found the solution, not only for this piece, but for my own sense of peace. Work as reprieve from work…imagine that!
Here is the finished painting as it was previously. I used masking medium to block out areas that are intended to stay white, and am continuing the same technique on the back frame.
Bonsai Garden
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
Bonsai Garden, Chinese and Japanese Gardens, Singapore 9 x 12 inches graphite on paper
FYI: I’m enabling the comments section again…will just have to keep deleting spams.
Seasonal: finished, and process
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
May 18th added a little more permanent green and raw sienna to deepen tones and finish Seasonal, 36 x 24 x 2 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted
Process May 12th – 17th images below: 1) May 12th: in progress after 90 minutes. 2) Worked a few hours more. The lower quarter of the painting will be a fairly detailed Lilac, and am leaving the blurry, semi-impressionistic background. 3) May 13th: blocked out shapes and lighting. Now jots of pure color will be added to the main flower to make it stand out from the rest. Tones need some correcting also. 4) May 17th: After 4 days more, the work needs studying before painting anything else. Past the point of no return, meaning: I had hoped to keep this one simple with few brushstrokes and limited palette, but it didn’t work out that way. One stroke over the line! Almost finished…working on the more contrast because the painting is overall flat now.
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Below: May 12th, just started. 
A damp cloth is used to remove areas of wet paint to soften and create texture. Left: central detail of phase 02, dripping water over damp paint and scratching with fingernail under a cloth.
Dancing With Trees Art list for Madison, WI
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.
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.
The Tree of Life
Monday, November 30th, 2009
The Tree of Life, 29 x 29 x 29 inches mixed media; refurbished vintage plastic lawn chair, woven canvas strips and white glue, thin layers of drywall compound: cured, sanded, carved, acrylics paint, varnish. Durable, completely functional.
There was an interesting buildup of colors after a lot of changing colors and repainting the design many times, so the impressions of this chair are created like the other chairs in this series; ancient artifact replicas. The back design is still in progress. View an earlier post of this chair, April 18th, 2009, and the other chairs are listed on the Art, Prices page.
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
