experimental
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Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Artini, 24 x 24 inches Acrylics on canvas. Rubbing white with a damp cloth over the textured surface, I can apply this technique to the next painting. This is serious play! The painting Artini and another recent one, Myrtle At The Zoo illustrate that: whether seasoned or just beginning, an Artist needs to stay open all the time to media-exploration and self-discovery. Even if it’s been tried many times before, there are a lot of little tricks that are easier to try out on less serious paintings, enabling more confidence when trying them out on work with higher cost of materials and time-investment. Experimenting and exploration result in knowledge and experience of the properties of various media; learning about yours and the media’s potential and limitations.
Windswept, NC
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Windswept, NC Cypress, Kitty Hawk, Outer Banks, North Carolina - 24 x 18 inches mainly Oil Pastel on paper; Pencil, Watercolor pencils used at start. Work still in progress - setting this aside to study it for a while…there are interesting parts in this drawing, but it needs something more dramatic besides the tree. A stormy sky maybe, or just crop it?
Above: click to enlarge detail images.
Windswept, NC (phase 2)
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
Windswept, NC Cypress, Kitty Hawk, Outer Banks - 24 x 18 inches Pencil, Oil Pastel, Watercolor pencils (mixed media experimental, work in progress).
Low light conditions today, so the photo, above left, is dark. I find that manipulating colors and contrasts digitally to correct them never works for these type of drawings, so included are two scanned portions showing accurate colors.
Plans now are to erase some of the color, then see what happens when painting lightly over some of the watercolor-penciled areas; there will be some resist because of the oil pastel base. I don’t mind taking this drawing beyond this stage because while portions are intersting, the cypress alone is not enough compositionally as I had hoped; it’s rather boring on its own. Some hints of background or interaction with another element is necessary, and once I drew the fence in, am disappointed with it in there now that I see it.
Windswept, NC - started
Sunday, January 20th, 2008
24 x 18 inches Work in progress: Sculptural, windswept cypress are common ornamentals in yards along the Outer Banks, North Carolina. This started as a pencil drawing, then felt I’d been playing it too safe lately, so added some energy and a few problems to solve with the use of oil pastels, which were mostly scraped away before continuing with watercolor pencils. Hoping to see the effects or textures created by mixing oil and water mediums.
First Snow, final update
Saturday, December 1st, 2007
First Snow - Acrylics, crackle glaze - 40 x 27 inches total size including the ”box-frame”. I added some darker areas, dripped water down the top layer of glaze, and flicked some specks of white with a toothbrush. Price $750.00
Gold In The Mountains #1
Sunday, November 4th, 2007
Gold In The Mountains #1, finished - 20 x 16 inches Acrylics on stretched canvas. Mounted on a box-frame, extending out 2 extra inches on canvas-covered background, with rustic barn-wood finished edges.
This is one of those paintings that never felt truly finished, until this week. Started late in 2005, it has evolved through many changes. The first thumbnail shows the painting at a stage where I thought it finished and entered it into Artjury.com’s Spring/Summer online exhibition, and it was accept ed. At the time I liked the larger areas of flat orange-gold. About six months later I judged that the work needed more depth, so began a long process of repainting, scrubbing off, build-up, scraping, etc. The painting reached a few different stages where it could have passed for finished, but I was not entirely pleased, so continued until I was. One never knows beginning any painting, how long it will take.. The image above shows the painting as it is today, now well and truly finished! Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge and view a few stages in the life of Gold In The Mountains#1.
Two drawings
Friday, September 21st, 2007
Trying to decide which pieces to enter one of the juried exhibitions, I came across two drawings started in March. Not confident with either one the way they were, I did some more work on each and am now satisfied to call them finished. One of of a Poplar forest in Banff, Alberta, called Northern Delights. The other: Redbuds on a foggy Spring morning in Coppell, Texas, called Rebirth.
Details: 14 x 11 and 11 x 14 Oil pastels, pencil, water-wash graphite, colored pencils, eraser. Both were drawn using these materials, more or less materials in one than the other, but lots of scraping, redrawing, and using the eraser over pastels to good effect; very experimental re: oil pastels and the paintable water-wash graphite pencil. Learned a lot with these two! That’s the way it is: some drawings and paintings need to hang around for a while in order to know for sure they are finished, or to see what else can be tried. Others are finished without a doubt.
Dancing With Trees - WIP
Monday, September 17th, 2007
Dancing With Trees - a work in progress, as most paintings are, even after submitting them in to juried exhibitions! Am still having doubts about the sky; not quite dark enough to contrast with the small amounts of bright coming from sunset and stars; will study that and possibly adjust. Layers of glaze used in the recent stages: Hansa yellow light, Pthalo blue, Pthalo green, Permanent green, thio violet, Mars black, Cadmium red light, Dioxazine violet
It’s the sky’s turn
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
It’s the sky’s turn to dance!
White glaze will attach itself to the varnish I dripped on the other day. ~ Dancing With Trees ~
Dancing With Trees - progress
Monday, September 10th, 2007
Dancing With Trees, started August 30th - 48 x 48 Acrylics on canvas - progression details are combined into one post. The Oil Pastel with the same name, posted in March 2007, inspired the painting.
I’ve tried lots of new things with this one - am hoping to keep just the impression of branches; I don’t want too many details. Using washes and glazes to help create the cedar branch texture I’ve dripped water, paint and varnish across patches of color, and also tried splattering it on with a brush and painting upside down.
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