Above: Central detail of 2D Pinecone, woven canvas strips, acrylics - painting in progress

March 6th and 7th: 2D Pinecone, 24 x 24 x .5 inches, woven canvas strips. Work in progress shows 1) weaving and 2) a very rough sketch on the primed canvas.

March 9th: 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 order to avoid overworking this.

March 6th: a huge thanks, Virginia for taking the time to write and digitize a detailed, objective critique. I sure appreciate your opinion about what might improve this. Spotted Cow Syndrome eh? Yes, you’re absolutely right. There needs to be one focus somewhere; left thumbnail shows another day of work..still in progress. 

Sorry if you’re having problems registering to this site in order to make comments, but those rotten spams get through..

Norway Maple in Madison, Wisconsin, 36 x 48 x 2 inches acrylics and modeling gel on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted.

Feb. 28th, above right: detail of above, left Adding a solid patch of turquoise to lower left and some tiny details like that may ground the whole thing, but that’s about it; am leaving it out of sight for a while. This really is a carnival of color, I love it!

Below thumbnails: Combined, edited posts of progression between Dec. 8th, 2009 - Feb. 27th, 2010 1) Started December 8th, 2009 2) Modeling gel is available in varied textures, finishes and viscosities. Acrylics paint can be mixed with the medium or when dry paint can be applied over top. 3) January 18th, 2010: work in progress; applying modeling paste to the base painting, and sculpting with a small trowel. 4) February 27th: lighter background colors were added in order to open up the space. The painting is too busy at this stage - a little heavy with brushstrokes actually, and needs to flow better.

Left: Jan 28th, detail image - used  a dry brush so paint would catch mostly on the textures, and kept the feeling soft. Intentions are to maintain the fresh pure colors. Studied from a distance for about a week after this stage to contemplate what the next move will be. 

All paintings and Art forms created from now until the end of April will be specifically toward the Dancing With Trees Exhibition to be held at the Steinhaur Trust Gallery, Wisconsin-Madison University Arboretum, scheduled May through June 2010.

The article, Extreme Drawing is finally revised and re-posted…10 days writing and revising. If I could draw about extreme writing I would! Tomorrow, a treat away from all the computer work: starting a new painting.  Today: a leaf study, conte and graphite on paper. Also, many of the the photo momtages have been updated on the Dancing With Trees website.

Marie Lake campsite, Alberta, 8 x 10 inches pen on paper

I’m trying to get a painting started that’s all planned in my mind’s eye, but have been finishing written articles and upgrading/updating the websites, so these little pen sketches are all I can manage lately; maybe a series is borne?

Cartoons to “Cool!” Drawing and Illustration: How to take your abilities less seriously so they can seriously improve.

Cartoons a) use basic geometric shapes b) eliminate unnecessary details c) simplify lines and d) exaggerate key characteristics and the most obvious features of a subject. The same principles translate well to creating representational work also. Participants will learn to portray these basics in a favorite image, then have time to complete a more realistic drawing in the afternoon.

Where, When, and Sign up at: Oxide Gallery, Denton, Texas - Saturday, March 27th 10:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. If there is enough interest, a second workshop will be held Sunday, March 28th as well. Participants are welcome to sign up for both days.

Fee: $50 10:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.     For ages: 16 - 100 yrs old, any skill level  (if you are 15 or 101 you will still be considered eligible)    Min. - Max. # of participants: 5 - 15      Supplies: A variety of supplies will be provided, but also bring any of your own supplies that you want to work with. We will work partially from a still-life arrangement which you may choose to finish, but also bring favorite pictures, photos; images of any subject matter. Select one in particular that you hope to accomplish, or have a clearer direction toward finishing (in the manner you choose) at the end of the day.

___________________

Quote from The Zen of Seeing - seeing/drawing as meditation, drawn and hand-written by Frederick Franck:

“How, I am asked, does one draw animals cows, horses, birds? Since for me each new drawing is an adventure for which I cannot predict the outcome, is always — in a sense – my very first one, I can give no recipe.”

I’ve been asked to teach drawing since ‘way back, but with the philosophy that we are our own best authorities when it comes to creating anything, I’ve never felt even half-qualified to “teach” anything. It was a recent conversation with a couple of other artists, that propelled the energy to commit to this workshop. There are many ways to approach learning - specifically, how to draw - as many ways as there are individuals. 

Translation: It’s snowing in Dallas today!

It snowed all day, huge Texas-sized flakes. Here, the snow melts on the warmth of the brick-work in the garden.

Cycad Fossil Chair, Salish NW Pacific culture wooden whorl replica Chair, and Ancient Mayan bowl replica refurbished vintage chair, 29 x 29 x 29 inches mixed media. More details about these chairs can be viewed here, items #11, 12 and 13.

On exhibit and available for purchase February 11th - 27th at Visual Image Fine Art Puiblishing and Gallery Juried Show, 14320 Midway Road, Suite 300, Dallas, Texas.  Come and meet all the Artists at the Opening Reception this coming Saturday, Feb. 13th, 3 - 9 p.m.

~

Good Artist Pals also come in threes

Some friendships will last forever, and how fortunate that three of mine also happen to be artists! Listed in no particular order of favoritism, each are miles apart geographically speaking and personality-wise, but they all have one thing in common: they’ll tell it like it is if you ever need a good critique, and on the flip side of the coin: a smile, a boost of energy; encouragement. I’ve posted my favorite works created by each, and highly recommend browsing each of their websites..

a) Chris Bolmeier: Happy Pigs, Oil on canvas  I met Chris on the internet three years ago through Robert Genn’s Painter’s Keys newsletters. Formerly an actress and professional singer, she’s not through yet with entertaining you through humour, song and paint. She often posts mini-videos of herself singing, and her artwork is pure, straight from the gut, and some of the funniest, most original material ever. Her blog, which she entitles poignantly, ”Christerical” is exactly that. I chose this piece to share as an absolute favorite, portraying fanatically goofy pigs because it makes me laugh…not just smile, but laugh Christerically every time I look at it. In my opinion her best work is of childhood memories, and some of the baffling stuff that originates from who knows where in the infinite canvas of her mind!

b) Karen Xarchos: Restaurant mural in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada  Karen and I were neighbors many years ago. We designed and painted murals together in the Ottawa area for a couple of years. Thank goodness for the internet, we’re able to keep in touch when either of us needs a good eye and some honest advice. Karen’s style and mine are vastly different; our pace, the style, the manner and we continue to learn so much from each other. She reminds me to slow down and smell the paint; her blending techniques are amazing.

Karen accepts commissions for canvas pieces like wall borders painted at home, then cleverly installs them with wallpaper paste so home owners can remove the work and take it with them when they relocate. My favorite work of Karen’s are the murals depicting work of the Masters, which are enjoyed by customers dining in many of the Greek and Italian restaurants in the Ottawa area.

c) Virginia Wieringa: Prayer, mixed media collage  Virginia and I met about four years ago on an Artists’ interactive website, wetcanvas.com, and I think she still participates there under the avatar name ”Veedubya”. I’m positive she’d love to meet you there too. Virginia has well-developed drawing and painting abilities and currently experiments intuitively with mixed media collage. Her work, no matter what the media, reflects her open-mindedness and strong sense of spirituality. Formerly an Art teacher, she’s fun to write to because she puts up with my inner-most silly self and doesn’t hold back her own. My favorite work of Virginia’s are the subtly symbolic collages, and some of the more vivid, energetic paintings that are about two phases pre-Realism.

…there are too many other things to do, but I wandered off anyway, missing the Alberta Spruce, so brought some back to Texas with a few ink-pen and digital pen scribbles.

Most websites require that you register before leaving comments, but I was hoping not to have to resort to those kind of restrictions. Are the days of trust completely gone? I sure hope not in our daily life, but on the internet it’s only wise to be careful. I deleted 348 spam comments the other day, so if you wish to leave comments you must now fill out your name and email.  Thanks!

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/

Merry Christmas from Airdrie, Alberta

столове~ Snow on French Lilac ~

Check out the Alberta/Texas phone interview for a pull-out feature in today’s Denton Record Chronicle.

In honor of my French Canadian mother-in-law who used to bake the best pies every year at Christmas time, and who is now in the advanced stage of Alzheimer’s, I decided to bake Tourtiere. I only tried making crust once before, but it was more like an edible jigsaw puzzle.  TV ads for brand-name shortening imply that flaky crust is a good thing, but it should probably stay on your fork long enough to reach your mouth. Making pie crust is not for sissies! Well, don’t despair my fellow bakers…as long as it ends up tasting good (using a tablespoon to get the job done) it’s the thought that truly counts.

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!

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, 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.

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, Arizona 24 x 18 x 2 inches acrylics on canvas, finished today. Below: phases 01, 02 and 07

 

Medicinal - Orange Milkweed, Kentucky (sold) 15 x 22 inches watercolors Above: finished, below: Nov. 19th almost finished

Driving from Texas to Ontario one summer I had to pull over to take photos and a closer study of the vivid orange bouquets growing beside the highway in southern Kentucky. The colors are irresistible, and this is not the first or last time I’ll portray this subject. All plants and trees contain medicinal and useful chemical properties in their leaves, stems, roots and flowers. I looked up  Orange Milkweed in the most informative books about plants, The Encyclopedia of Herbs and Herbalism edited by Malcom Stuart, which contains details about every plant I have ever sought to find information for.  According to it, Appalachian Indians made a tea from the leaves to use during religious ceremonies. One common name for this plant is Pleuracy Root, as it is still useful to treat infections of the respiratory tract including pleurisy It is used as a diaphoretic, antispasmodic, carminative, expectorant… Whatever! Color also has enchanting, supernatural energizing  properties!

See also: The Fourth of July progress as painted with acrylics, and this link seen as it is finished, The 4th of July Oil Pastel version, and Orange Milkweed photography

Bird Party, Watercolors on molded 140 lb watercolor paper - in progress.

I’m not exactly sure where this is headed, but shapes were cut out of the painting, the paper drenched , folded , stretched and sculpted. Every evening just before sunset in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Grackles, blackbirds, Starlings and pigeons gather on lawns, parking lots, overhead wires and cables, rooves and trees. The event is unique to this area as far as I know, and exciting beyond words to be amongst the thousands and thousands of birds. Here is a previous piece on the subject.  

At The Alamo, San Antonio, TX  15 x 22 inches watercolors 

Left: just started, before drip techniques Above: finished
Rather than continue with an “I’ve scene it all before” approach, the paper was held up straight let drips happen. Blowing through a straw cut in half (less effort than a whole straw to create the effects) the paint was directed around half-planned, half not.

 

Angels Trumpet (Brugmansias) San Antonio Riverwalk, Texas - 14 x 22 inches Watercolors in progress Nov.7, 8, 9th: 1) Upper left detail  2) Upper right detail  3) Lower right detail 4) below, today’s work

I definitely pushed the work too far and am not pleased with today’s results, but on this blog I think it’s really important to show that failures are part of the learning process.  Sometimes things turn out to be purely study. I didn’t trust my intuition this time and leave the painting when it was bright and fresh with lots of white paper showing through. While attempting to be bolder than usual with color - recognizing that as a positive step forward here - reworking the surface just made it muddier. I’m more familiar with acrylics properties and having a longer window of time to fix things. Now onto another version of this painting, or another subject, but still in watercolors because it’s time for a success after learning so much with this one. 

Trumpet Flowers, San Antonio Riverwalk, Texas -12 x 16 inches value study in progress, Tombo pen wash on 140 lb. WC paper.

The Tombo pen is a two-in-one water-soluble marker available in colors as well as black. One tip is medium-fine and the other looks and behaves like a Chinese paintbrush, where thickness of lines can be controlled. What’s more difficult to control is that black once it’s on the page! The edge of the ledges on the bridge here were much brighter, but I couldn’t lighten them without making a mess of the surrounding areas, so they are OK. It’s something to pay attention to when painting the colored version.

Preliminary studies are useful with watercolors because if, in trying to correct and re-work areas, the integrity of the paper is easily lost, especially on inexpensive papers. Still, on a traditional watercolor a lot can be done by adding water  to pull out the dark where it’s not wanted, and push out areas of paint with dry brushes. Some places in this study have built-up 3D edges created by the paper bits because I pushed them around so much with a stiff brush to correct things, but traditionally this is not acceptable. 

Actually, come to think of it, that might be interesting to deliberately sculpt the paper in strategic areas - like objects in the foreground - by saturating it with too much water, then while painting, brush the resulting paper bits into piles and mold them with a stiff  brush. I may try that in the final colored painting of this scene. This proves once more that every single painting is an experiment to find ways to turn disadvantages and  limitations into advantage and innovation.

Even though WC and Acrylics are water-friendly and watered-down acrylics is the method I use to start most canvas paintings, I’m noticing a few outstanding differences : 1) an off-balance composition seems to be more noticeable with WC, definitely not as correctable 2) improved attention to drawing, details and ultra-conscious 3) requires pre-planning and foresight to keep the work fresh and clean 4) commands enough confidence to swish the paint on quickly as if it was not planned.

It takes much less time to perceive than it does to write about it. For a hands-on illustration of this, draw a simple Smiley Face, and note the time that it takes to draw it. Afterward write down everything that comes to mind about that icon; what it means, other general impressions and associations. Although this is a familiar icon with clear connotations, possibly something we see every day now, plus almost all of us have drawn it at some point, within seconds of describing it you will realize how much longer it takes to interpret as quickly into words. Harvey Ball, the original artist of the Smiley Face icon must be flabbergasted that succeeding generations would come to coin the term, “emoticons”, based on an indefinite number of facial expressions that spawned from the first, including animated ones that wink and cry, and more.

Essentially, full comprehension in any language relies on those aspects of our mind’s eye: memories and imagination in order to be fully effective. Pictures appeal to our abstract, multidimensional experiences and through the emotions, allowing for individual’s interpretations. There are higher expectations for words. We assume that they alone are qualified when we’re talking on the phone and participating in online computer groups, for instance, but it actually takes extra effort for our intent to be clear when we don’t have access to the visual side of our statements. Even if we speak the same language, the words we choose and their meaning can be misinterpreted and misunderstood.

Relying on the visual aspects of learning, subjects in school are traditionally taught using chalkboards and eraser-boards, stimulating audio and visual senses. Likewise, motivational speakers often use diagrams to help get the point across. The use of imagery is rampant everywhere now. It’s extremely effective in all forms of advertising, and despite all attempts to hold on to all copyrights, if the art is relatable it spreads like wildfire on the internet. Artists of every kind are more vulnerable than ever to fraud.

Harvey Ball’s Smiley Face is a perfect example of how artists are not really in control of what they create. Generally though, any exposure is good exposure, because most people who borrow other people’s graphics or ideas still want to know who the source is. As artists it’s beneficial and constructive for us to continue moving on to the next best project and keep progressing with a lifetime of work. We have to learn to let go of the strong bond we have with the art we create. It’s personal, to be sure, but a good motto is, “There’s more where that came from”.

Along with the resources available to us now, in our progressive age of high technology and wireless everything, it’s still the Human factor that needs refining. We only need to trust intuition as much as logic, with as much emphasis on communicating our emotions as openly and explicitly as we do words and speech. Fortunately there are infinite forms of expression, and inevitably it’s a good thing that creativity is available to everyone, not just artists. Creativity thrives on challenges to communicate effectively; it always has and it always will.

More about Artists and history in the article, The Influence of History.
~
Credits: Above cartoon by Saul Steinberg (1914 – 1999) was a Romanian-born American cartoonist, best known for his work in the New Yorker magazine. Harvey Ball, Wikipedia, Smiley Face

 

Buildings, San Antonio, Texas - 22 x 15 inches Watercolors on 140 lb. acid free, cold press premium paper

Above, finished Oct 29th: The Campsite, Maine, USA - 15 x 22 inches Watercolors on 140 lb. acid free cold press premium paper

Thumbnails: 1) Value sketch using Payne’s Gray 2) Oct 21st  in progress 3) finished, left detail

~ 2nd week of  Watercolor course offered by Jo Williams ~

See also October 28th, 2008 and October 30, 2007 

Simple beauty, McKinney Ave. sidewalk, Uptown Dallas, Texas

  

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.

Opening Reception Saturday, October 10th, 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. 

	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.

where silence between the notes sets the rhythm,

not painting is half the work.

For all artists, the most mysterious question of all might be “is it finished?” , but for the sake of clarity and the examples here I’ll just refer to painters. One popular opinion is that the best painting is one that’s finished quickly; one that retains the artist’s first fresh impressions, otherwise it should be painted over or tossed in the garbage and a new one started immediately. There are solid reasons for not lingering too long on a painting, but in matters of the Art I’m always suspicious when I hear the word should being used in a sentence containing advice. Some art rumors are accepted as absolute when they could stand some explanation. It can be confusing enough for the experienced, but especially for beginners looking for ground rules and a map to follow.
In Art though, for every should there is another option. The same suggestions don’t work for everyone. Have you ever felt guilty or embarrassed – even ashamed - because you took a painting too far? I have, but it’s only when I’ve compared my work and methods to others’ judgment that I should’ve quit while I was ahead…and guilt has no business hanging around in our daily work if it isn’t useful! (Frustration can be an excellent motivator if it’s allowed to be, but that’s another topic).
If it’s going to make sense - not exclusively the sole intention - every painting reaches stages where we need to make the call to leave it alone and say it’s finished, or proceed; stages where placing one more mark means the entire painting has to change and be brought up to par around it. If things that need correcting are not dealt with honestly, the work will not be as successful as it could be. There are phases in each painting that are truly intimidating, when painting is anything but leisurely; when we’re faced with: do we climb that mountain or not?

A lot of Plein Aire artists swear that their methods of painting outdoors on-site produce the highest quality work. The limitations of sunlight, location, outdoor temperatures and so on, mean that to finish successfully they need to splash down a lot of information within a short period of time. Doing so, when the thinking brain is disengaged and just responding to the subject, a lot of amazing unintentional surprises show up in the painting. Spontaneity and spurts of enthusiasm for being fully in the present tense can bring great results that need no further efforts at the end of the day. Plain Aire artists are in a field of their own (literally too!).
It’s a curious thing how creativity warps and reforms into amazing things when pressure is applied. Many people who aren’t artists will agree that the greatest ideas can occur when under pressure to produce them. For those who have orders to complete, at its best the challenge is like a beautiful sort of panic, where there’s an understanding of the time restrictions while fully trusting that whatever needs to happen is going to be successful. The abilities are less trustworthy when the pace and demand for finished work increases, time allotted decreases and the quality of the product diminishes. If this imbalance continues over extended periods of time, like years, sloppy and care-less habits take hold too easily. If there is work that must be accomplished though, these things can be controlled to some extent –this is one benefit of pushing personal boundaries: it puts tenacity to practice - but creativity is fickle and that’s a fact.

What has all that got to do with the question about finishing? The best paintings are not necessarily those that are finished in a few hours or a day. There are other purposes for painting besides finishing it to admire, be admired or to sell. Nothing replenishes the quality of our creative energy like being lost in the timeless, pure enjoyment of study and detail for no reason in particular. “The Zone” is like an addiction where the high is fairly elusive but we’re compelled compulsively to track it down again and again, discovering and rediscovering the source of it all. One painting could be someone’s lifetime of work.

I’m saying that if you personally feel you’d like to keep going with a painting for days or years… or never finish, then you ought to follow your own intuition about it. I’m not saying you should. I just recommend considering what other artists say, but also consider each painting as a new experience with new rules, new goals and new circumstances.
Experience, masterpiece to failure, will always apply to future work somehow. That’s the great thing about painting: no time spent searching for answers is ever wasted. It’s all recyclable material! Every decision about finishing – or not - is relative to individuality, and relative to each new painting as it develops your way.

_________________________________________________________________

___________ pushing the boundaries ____________

Myrtle At The Zoo, first version, Phase 18, unfinished - Crepe Myrtle branches and seedpods - 20 x 34 x 2 inches Acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped.

Work daily March 10th through April 2nd, 2008 Blog entry partial:

Finished for now…this one needs a rest, and I may or may not return to it. Regardless, I’ve learned a lot and enjoyed playing with different ideas. It’s been interesting teetering back and forth between frustration and fun, but sometimes that’s what painting is all about. There’s been such a tension over this one as with no other painting, where the urge to throw it away is pitted against the determination to see what could happen. I still like a lot of things in it, such as the technique of dripping paint down the front that I’ve tried in previous paintings. Dripping re-energized the painting and me, and took the work in unexpected directions.

	Myrtle At The Zoo, 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped
$350.00

Myrtle At The Zoo, 2nd version - 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted. Many of the issues were worked through on the previous larger version, and I’m pleased with this boxy little painting…still not completely satisfied that I’m finished with this subject because it’s so complex, and it’s like a puzzle that’s nagging at me to figure out, so will probably attempt this same painting at least one more time.

_________________________________________________________________

__________ perpetual painting__________

Painting animals with distinct and specific characteristics calls for a different approach from start to finish, for example, compared to generic landscapes. The boas are one of my favorite exhibits at the Dallas World Aquarium, downtown Dallas, Texas. The phosphorescent green skin has striking black and white scale patterns along the spine and a turquoise mother-of-pearl overall sheen that’s most visible at certain angles where the body delicately curls and bends, so this painting accumulates finer detail than is typical of my work, except in graphite illustrations.

Emerald Tree Boas, 24 x 57 x 2 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped (August, 2005 - ? )
As shown in the thumbnail above, there are only a few small things left to do, a little on the skin then some barely visible brushstrokes in the background, like ones that were there in earlier phases, thumbnail…so it really is just about finished, but I’m not in any hurry. Of course I’ll stop in my tracks if you want to buy it!

I like having one painting around that’s going to get the full treatment! Emerald Tree Boas has become like an old friend, even hanging out celebrating holidays in the dining room with the rest of us. It would be nice if this painting could carry enough potency to alter the automatic responses of fear and disgust that are associated with snakes. It just occurred to me that it might be fun to offer the buyer an assortment of hats and hearts and ribbons for different occasions. Where I used tape, instead I’d put magnets on the back and magnets on all the little hats and accessories. It’s a little nutty maybe, but it also opens up the target market a little doesn’t it!  

Nature is perfectly imperfect. I paint with acrylics, so if the surface is washed back and scrubbed regularly in areas that need change. Scrubbing paint away with a pot scrubber or wet cloth used to remove paint helps texturize, give atmosphere, and also ensure that paint won’t cake up in areas, unless that’s the intention. More debates about spending too long on a painting are that it stiffens the whole look and feel because 1) it tidies things up too much, and 2) due to the plastic properties of acrylics, if they are allowed to pile up they will harden and shine, no longer catching the tooth of the canvas.

These are all things that can also be used to advantage though. In sports you need to know your opponent… well the same is true here. You can use the buildup to create the effects it produces if that’s what you want to acheive. To keep the canvas texture for as long as possible, paint diluted with gels or water is perfect to start, then as confidence builds, so can your applications of paint. My philosophy is that if things need to change they do, until the word “finished” is loud and clear.

 _________________________________________________________________

____   practice and even failure can eventually be applied to future works   ____

	Neighborhood Heron, Magic Square series, 11 x 11 x 3 acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted
$350.00

Blog entry: March 19, 2009:  Neighborhood Heron  started with a base coat of very watered down pthalos green (translucent) mixed with cerulean blue (opaque). Spraying rubbing alcohol over a damp painted water-based surface then allowing it to dry without moving it will create starry, spotty textures. Salt shaken over wet paint allowed to dry, then wiped off with a dry cloth will produce similar effects. The drama I hoped for by spritzing the surface with rubbing alcohol isn’t there because I sprayed too much and moved it too soon. Impatience may also be a virtue?…the alcohol puddled and did something else instead: it loosened up the entire surface of paint, so using fingernails under a damp smooth t-shirt cloth, I rubbed off areas to shape the heron and winter trees. This was not planned initially, but a super argument for the “wingin’ it” methods!
In less an hour I knew that it was finished. Paintings that finish so quickly are gems!… and only due to a lot of practice in previous works exploring, experimenting, becoming familiar with limitations of whatever medium, and overcoming personal limitations…even a good deal of failure.
In college I took a pottery course for one semester, and the thing I remember most is the instructor saying how it’s a good idea to allow some of the raw characters of the materials we work with to remain and “speak” without trying to smooth over and perfect everything. She was of course referring to clay, but over the years I’ve found that it applies to many other mediums also. In Heron, the branches extend into the body of the bird, connecting it to its environment. The effect also does a subtle play on the motion of its flight too.