A studio soul sister and 6 reasons to enjoy your sketchbook

In the last post I showed you a few little snippets of a painting I was working on. I finished it and it's still got a lot of color! It doesn't have a title yet so if you have any thoughts, feel free to share in the comments. It's 20x16x1.5 and the image continues on the sides of the canvas. To me, this feels like a field of flowers in spring. 

This one was done, so what next? I wanted to do something different for the first week of the year.

Remember this post? I talked about getting the creative juices flowing again by playing with some small, loose abstract compositions. Some of those little experiments were finished and displayed. Some of them I didn't care for enough to show but I didn't hate them enough to throw them away either. 

After the holidays I sometimes hit a bit of a slump in the studio so when that happens I like to read about and watch other artists for inspiration. You can always find a cool tip or tool to play with that excites the mind. I browsed through my art book shelf and also started watching YouTube videos. There's so much out there. One artist that caught my attention was Louise Fletcher. Oh my goodness, she's like a studio soul sister! She even uses pattern tissue in her layers like I do. 

In this video she talks about how she uses her sketchbook to develop ideas. She does the same kind of exercise that I do with mini abstract compositions but then she takes the leftovers and saves them in her book, makes notes, and uses them for reference. Brilliant! I gave it a go. 

In this next one, I'm testing out some new paint I just ordered. I've never tried Nova paints. They're an acrylic made in CA. I ordered a few colors to try them and I will be ordering more. The colors are wonderfully saturated. They come in jars because they're not heavy body acrylic. They seem to have a viscosity somewhere between fluid and soft body acrylics and have great covering power. I'm happy with them so far and will add them for certain techniques. For some texture effects, the heavier body paints still work better. 

In the one below I grabbed some twigs from the back yard and used them like brushes to scribble on the page. I like the loose, organic feel of the marks.

I've always kept a sketchbook but I haven't used it as much in recent years and I usually just use it for graphite sketches. Now I'm enjoying this sketchbook practice for a few reasons.

1.   It helps me to work out design ideas for future paintings.
2.   I can work out color combinations and mixtures.
3.   I can try different techniques before taking them to the canvas.
4.   I can save all this to look at later when I need some inspiration.
5.   I make notes about what works and what doesn't so I don't have to reinvent the wheel when I'm working.
6.   No one ever has to see my studio work book unless I feel like sharing. I'm free to experiment  and play and if it doesn't work, I learned something. If it works, I learned something.

The new year is starting off with lots of inspiration, learning and fun. I hope you're having a great start to your year. Check out some more of Louise's videos and let me know if you find any other cool artists to watch. Let's go 22!

When you're between projects....

Happy 4th everyone! I hope you're doing something fun today. We have pretty lousy weather right now so I don't think we're doing anything outside, hence, the reason I'm sitting at my computer. 

So this is the kind of thing I do when I'm between projects. I just finished the last nest painting. I have 2 commissions waiting in the wings. I have multiple canvases prepped and waiting for new nests and landscapes. Before starting all that I wanted to play with something a little different. It always helps to get the creative juices flowing. 

I started with a full sheet of watercolor paper, gave it a layer of gesso, and taped it down on all the edges. Then I used the tape to section off 12 squares. With a large brush I started throwing acrylic paint around - thalo blue, light green and red gold. I also scribbled a bit with graphite and colored pencils.

 

While the paint was still wet I used the handle end of the brush to scratch into the paint and make more marks. I applied the white with a big kitchen spatula. You can see here that I peeled the tape away. 

I tore the squares apart using a straight edge. Since the paper has deckled edges I didn't want to use scissors and make the inside edges too clean. Tearing against the straight edge gives a more deckled feel. 

As a last step, I used my favorite black - BLK3.0 ultra matte black, to add areas of contrast. They're fun little abstracts! Now what do I do with them? I thought about framing them but I HATE framing. The hassle and expense of framing is one of the reasons I no longer do much work on paper but sometimes the urge is too great. So what now - I realized that these little guys fit well on an 8x8 canvas so I ordered a case. I'll paint them solid black and then mount the paintings on the canvas. I like the way the black edge frames the design. 

While I'm waiting for the canvas order to come in I can start working on the commissions. This is one of the best things about being a painter. I love having multiple projects to work on. Maybe it seems like I'm all over the place or unfocused to some folks but I never get bored in the studio! And it seems to me that working with multiple subject matter and methods can influence the other work you do. Isn't that how we grow as artists? Anyway, this is definitely something I'll do again. If you're looking for a fun exercise to build your composition and design skills, this is it. 

Just some thoughts on a rainy day.

Till next time,

C

Neighborhood News

The nest from the video in the last post is finished. This cardinal had a story to tell so I'm calling it Neighborhood News. Birds are such resourceful creatures. You never know what you're gonna find tucked into a nest. I've found cloth, yarn, plastic grocery bag pieces, hair - horse and human, moss, newspaper pieces, and a gold foil strip from a cigarette pack. 

This new piece is available on my website. I've also added a new landscape to the site today. Have you been to my site yet? Please check it out by clicking here. There's a link to this blog along with tabs to take you to each section - nests and landscapes along with a few other collections of things I do. We don't have to stick to painting only one thing do we? It's much more fun to mix things up - kinda like the birds and their building techniques. 

Have a fabulous rest of your week. On to the next painting....

C

 

It's Experiential

The little abstract painting below was a piece I did a few years ago. I liked it then. It's where I was at the time. Looking at it again recently, along with a number of other ones, I decided it wasn't what I wanted anymore so I started putting more layers on top, sandwiched between layers of thick gloss acrylic gel. In those layers I also scribbled with graphite and colored pencil, and dribbled alcohol to lift color. If you look closely you can still see bits of the original painting peeking through so scroll down to see what happened to it. 

When the last layer of clear gloss dried I added a final touch.... accents painted with BLK3.0. This is the most matte black paint I've ever seen. It absorbs all the light so you don't even see the texture that's underneath the paint. I love the contrast between the matte black and the high shine of the gloss gel. 

One thing about this kind of work where you have layer upon layer and extreme contrasts, it's hard for all the details to come across in a photo. It's so experiential, it's best to see pieces like this in person. Below is a detail shot and then a couple of pictures at angles so you can see the difference between the shine and the black areas. 

The original painting was called Time Passage 11 so I guess I'll call it Time Passage 11 Redux. There's more experimenting to do so stay tuned for a few more of these. I just added this one and one other to my website so check out the abstract page to see more. Of course I have some new bird nest paintings in mind too, and some landscapes. So many paintings to do!

Happy Wednesday and I hope the rest of your week is spectacular.

C

Lovey in 3 little videos

Last time I shared the portraits I was working on and I mentioned another one in acrylic with gold leaf. Here are 3 video clips of me working on that portrait and a picture of the finished painting.

I was inspired by the first acrylic portrait where I finished the other artist's work. I really was afraid to start that one because of the pressure I felt to do well. I had always done portraits in colored pencil so not only was there pressure because of the circumstances but pressure because it was a subject I don't usually do in acrylic. After doing that one and getting such a great reaction to it from the client, I gained enough confidence to give it another shot. 

I'm constantly stressing to my students that reference material is HUGE. I'm sure they get tired of hearing about it but it really is that important. Sometimes I see them painting away on something while their reference photo is hidden somewhere in the mess of supplies on the table. How can they use it if they can't see it. You can't paint well if you can't see the subject.

Anyway.... the reference I used for this painting is a photo my daughter Sarah took of her daughter Scarlett. It's a good composition and clear so it makes a great reference. And what better way to play with a new portrait than of my granddaughter! I'm a mom so of course I'm also going to put a plug in here for my daughter's new blog about her photography so click on those words right there to see it and some more of her pictures.

Below I'm applying the gold leaf. You don't see it here but first I applied adhesive size to the canvas- that's the glue. You usually have to wait anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes for the glue to get tacky. Once the color has gone from milky white to clear, give it a tap with your finger to check if it's tacky enough to hold the gold.

In the last one I'm working on the face. I don't use portrait smooth canvas like some people. I love texture so why change now? I did my usual slathering of super heavy gesso on the canvas with a palette knife. I just didn't make it as rough as I usually do so when I drybrush color on it you can see the texture on the skin. I'm ok with that because there's texture everywhere else and it keeps the look consistent.

And here she is finished - Lovey is 11x14. When I was on video chat with Sarah and Scarlett the other day, I showed them the painting and the first thing Scarlett said was "my lovey!" so the title was a no brainer.

Lovey

11x14

acrylic and gold leaf

I'm still working on the colored pencil portrait of the 2 little guys on the bed. Look for the finished one in the next post - hopefully!

Acrylic to graphite to colored pencil and back again.

It's been a busy time with lots of projects and that's a good thing! I love having multiple things to work on. I can go back and forth between projects when I get tired of something or just frustrated with how things are going and need a break. 

Switcharoo time..... I went from nests and landscapes to portraits all of a sudden. First I got a very special commission. This is a portrait that was started by an artist friend many years ago. Sadly, she passed away before finishing and her sister asked me to finish it for her. Talk about pressure. I was scared to death to do it but once I got started I was ok. I just wanted to make the artist's family proud because really - what an honor that they asked me to do it.

The other challenge was figuring out how much painting to do. There was the obvious - everything that was left undone - face, hair, both shirts and bits of the rest of the clothing. There were other things too where she had done first layers but I was afraid if I did too much it wouldn't be her painting anymore but mine. I couldn't let that happen. So anyway, this is the finished portrait. I worked mostly on the figure and the jacket he's leaning against. Irene, wherever you are, I hope you're pleased.

While working on that one I got another commission that I finished and can't show you because it's to be a surprise gift. So pretend I'm sharing a photo of a graphite portrait of 4 people. You'll see the real thing at the end of November.

⬜

Then I got another commission to do one in colored pencil. I went from acrylic to graphite and now to cp. This one I can share in progress so I shot a little bit of video while I was working on it. I'll share again when it's done.

And now I'm also working on another portrait in acrylic but I'm adding gold leaf to it. Just because. It's from a photo my daughter took and I just love it so I thought I'd play a bit. I'll share that one in the next post.

Until then, keep on painting and playing.

Therapy canvas and the woman

So life seems to be getting back to a place of normalcy- kind of. This has been a very rough year but things are looking up a bit. The depression is finally beginning to lift and I actually feel like doing more. I don't know about you but when I'm very depressed, working and painting is extremely hard to do. I've reached a point now where I don't have to force myself to go into the studio. I actually want to and am excited about painting again. Yay!

One of the things that helps me get out of a funk is throwing paint at a canvas that I'm not worried about- meaning I don't have to think about that piece going to a gallery or being entered in a show. It's just there for me. I have a couple of these at the moment and I call them my therapy canvases. I have one that's 48x48, quite large for me, and it's the one I use when I'm angry. It's great to throw paint and get out some aggression. That one is stashed in my studio in a not so convenient place so I haven't thrown anything at it in a while (I guess if I get pissed off enough I'll dig it out of the corner where it lives). I also have my blue canvas. That one is not as large and it hangs in my bedroom. I just take it down when I need it, add a few more layers of paint and just don't think about anything while I do it. When I feel through with it I hang it back up until the next time I need it.

Since I was feeling very blue through most of this year so far I decided to take the blue canvas down and play. Pushing paint around without an agenda can be so relaxing- just what I needed.

I don't even know how many layers of acrylic paint are on this thing. There's also tissue paper, handmade paper and glass bead texture gel. I got done playing with it and hung it back up on the bedroom wall. Later that week I was sitting in the room talking with my daughter-in-law and she stops, looks at the painting and says.... "there's a woman in that painting" or something to that effect. I don't remember her exact words. I said, what painting? She pointed at it, I looked, and suddenly there she was.

I don't know if you can see it too but now, that's all I see when I look at it. These things fascinate me. Where did she come from? Is it my subconscious or is it coincidence? Now when I look at this painting I see her profile facing to the right. I see her wearing a cape with a hood, I even see her wearing a jacket with embellishments that look like they match the cape. 

I guess I've lost one of my therapy canvases because I can't bring myself to touch this one again. I think I have to leave her alone now.

A short and speedy clip

I discovered the hyperlapse setting on my phone! Yay! I love watching artists in their speed painting videos so I decided to try it myself. Yesterday I set up my little blue flexible tripod with my phone in it and did a clip of me working on the next bird nest painting. This is only the second time doing this. Hopefully these little clips will get better with practice. Light can be an issue in my studio so I might have to experiment with the placement of my easel and I have to figure out a way to get closer to the canvas too.

Anyway..... here's a short clip of a work in progress. It's an 8x8 canvas that I first textured with super heavy gesso. After letting that dry overnight I painted the whole canvas red, sketched the design and then applied gold leaf. Here I'm working with acrylic. I'm not done at the end of the clip, I still have some work to do so I'll share it when it's finished.

Thanks for watching!

A quick post holiday post

I hope ya'll had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Just a quick post with a nest update. It's been a busy couple of weeks with the holidays coming up plus I've been sick- no fun! But I'm on the mend now and ready to get back to painting and all the other stuff that goes along with it.

This is a little nest that was on top of my daughter's front porch light fixture. It's a swallow's nest. Before seeing this I had no idea some birds made their nests partially with mud. You can see the photo below. I usually prefer to have a nest in hand to paint from rather than working from photos but as you can see this one was well occupied and later there were 5 beautiful swallows.

The painting below is still a work in progress and another one I'm doing from a photo even though I have the actual nest in the studio. I found it in the hedge in my yard but before I removed it from the hedge I took pictures from different angles in case I wanted to do something that included a few surrounding leaves. Tomorrow I'm spending the day at the easel and I'll post again when it's done.

In the meantime......

After all that holiday food

So many paintings... so little time.

Hope everyone's good. I've been busy in the studio since the last post. Finished this nest....

And then painted this one..... sold another one.....

Then for a change of pace I started this landscape with a flowering tree. I wanted to play with some different colors and shapes. I've done a couple of other pieces similar to this one and love the blue-greens against the gold leaf.

From this angle you can see the texture and shine of the gold. I'm using metallic gold acrylic to drybrush gold along the edge of the leaf. It softens the edge and makes a good transition between the 2 areas. And it shows off the texture too. Love the texture!

So right after starting this landscape I found an old nest in a tree in my yard. I got on a step stool to get some shots of it to paint from. It was well seated in between the branches so it wasn't easy to take photos.

The next day I decided to see if I could get the nest out of the tree without damaging it. It was tricky but I did it with only losing a couple of little twigs. 

Of course, now I'm dying to paint the new nest!!! It's going to take some discipline to make myself finish the landscape first. If I don't, who knows when I'll get back to it. There are so many nest paintings I want to do- bigger, smaller, different angles, doing some with copper leaf instead of gold.... 

So many paintings- so little time. LOL

The "catching up" post- painting, portraits, coloring books and censorship

Wow, almost a year to the day since the last post! That is way too long!
So what have I been up to- let's see.....

Painting, painting and more painting.
Did multiple portrait commissions.
Designed and published the Masterpeace Mandala coloring books- yes, my husband and I put our skills together and jumped on that bandwagon.
Had a solo exhibition at the 567 Center for Renewal in Macon GA.
Changed a few things around on the Etsy shop
Spent a week at the beach.
Spent a week in Ohio with daughter and grandkids.
Spent the holidays in Texas with my other daughter and grandson.
Spent 3 more weeks in Texas helping my daughter when she had baby #2.
In between those trips there was more painting and working on my website.
Teaching art classes on Mondays.

I think that's it. I don't think I left out anything major. And I think the traveling will slow down this year. Of course it would be a huge help if my daughters would just move to FL!

Ok, back to the work.....

The landscapes

Golden Edge

12x12

Gold Sky Woodland

12x6

Spring Pink

12x12

These are some of the newest paintings from my studio. I'm having fun with the gold leaf again- can you tell? :) Sales at the Signature Gallery in Tallahassee and the Macon Arts Alliance in GA have been picking up- yay! My next step will be to add another gallery to the list. I'm not sure which area I want to approach so if you have any ideas about where my work would fit in, feel free to share.

The solo exhibition

BFA

48x36

This is one of the pieces from the Silent Voices series. I have 16 paintings in this series so far, all the same size. This was the group of work for my solo exhibit in GA. It caused quite a commotion and 3 of the paintings were censored from the show!! Every weekend for the duration of the show the paintings had to come down and were rehung on Mondays- not kidding! If you want to see the pieces that were censored and why, check out the post I did on my other blog. To see the rest of the pieces in the show, go to the Symbolic page on my site. 

The portraits

I've done several portrait commissions but this one I did for myself. My granddaughter was hanging out at the house with us one night. She had wrapped a blanket around herself and was just being goofy and making faces. I grabbed the camera and took a lot of shots and decided to compile some of them into the 6 Faces of Maxine. It's colored pencil on red Canson MiTeintes and let me tell you.... skin tones on red paper is a challenge!

The coloring books

Coloring books?! Yep, we made coloring books. There are actually 3 coloring books and 3 coloring journals. We thought it would be fun to make mandala designs and patterns inspired by line drawings of the masters. So far we have Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Mucha. In the journals we have pages that are lined and some unlined and some that have coloring designs or edges. Since this kind of work is not something I normally do it was quite the learning curve for me. Getting to know the programs required to do the designs took some time but once I got it down it was a lot of fun.

I think this catches us up and hopefully I can get back to posting here on a regular basis now that life is getting a little more regular again. So in the meantime, check out the links, leave comments here or there.... let me know what you think. And Happy 4th of July! Hope it's a great weekend.

Playing

So it's a couple of weeks after the workshop and I've been busy getting back into the routine of walking at the park, classes, portrait commissions and landscape painting. In between those things I get to play with little people like these 2 lovely ladies...

I mean, look at those faces- how can I resist? Sometimes I just have to put the brushes down and pick up a puppet or a book and snuggle with little girls on my lap.

Okay, back to art stuff.... while I was at the workshop in Live Oak I was introduced to a new paper (new to me anyway). It's called TerraSkin and one of the ladies taking the class was kind enough to bring a piece of it for me to play with. It intrigued me so when I got home I ordered a pad. What is TerraSkin? It's made from rocks. That alone was enough for me to try it. Here are some basics about it from their website. 

• TerraSkin is a combination of mineral powder (>75%) and a small quantity (<25%) of non-toxic resin combined to create an environmentally friendly paper.

• The production of TerraSkin requires no water, so the TerraSkin papermaking process incurs no water pollutants.

• Used TerraSkin paper will start to degrade under the proper environmental conditions of high heat, moisture and UV light.

• Most importantly, in producing TerraSkin, the harvesting of trees is unnecessary, thereby safeguarding the natural environment’s beauty and biodiversity for all living beings.

• TerraSkin also has beautiful printing capabilities and a unique texture and feel. Because the paper is fiberless, it does not absorb ink like regular paper and also uses less ink than regular paper. Images stay much crisper and cleaner because the ink doesn’t bleed.

• TerraSkin is water – resistant and inherently strong and durable.

It was originally formulated for commercial uses such as packaging, labels, banners, printing etc.... so there isn't anything about it's use for artists on the website but if you poke around online you can find info and videos about using this stone paper.

Here is my first time playing with TerraSkin.... I wanted to try mixed media with portrait work so I figured this paper would be ideal for it. It's very similar to Yupo paper but has a slight texture where Yupo is very slick. Because of the texture it accepts colored pencil pretty well. You can't build up as many layers as you can on Canson Mi-Teintes or watercolor paper but you can do some layering. I started this one by drawing the face first with colored pencils; I did a few layers of skin tones. Then I started playing with very loose washes of blue watercolor. The paper surface is slightly porous so it absorbs a little of the paint but a lot sits on the surface and takes a while to dry.

When it was dry I started playing with acrylic paint, some right from the tube and some watered down. I also sprayed it with water while the paint was still wet. I scratched into the paint with the handle end of the brush to make some marks and then I kept layering acrylic and watercolor. At one point I splattered the blue and then sprayed it to encourage it run across the face and then let the puddles dry where they were.

The background really looks a mess but it's fun to let loose and experiment. I can always go back into it and paint some more layers over it and change the look completely. I can definitely see playing with these techniques some more. If you work on paper and like playing with mixed media, give this paper a try.

Time to pick up a brush.... 

Hanging on to winter

Fire and Ice

18x18

As I sit in my studio enjoying the air conditioning on a hot, Florida spring day, I'm still enamored with ice. I think I'm trying to hold off the inevitable - VERY hot summer days. This is the third ice painting so far, finished this one yesterday. There's more I want to do in my quest of hanging on to winter but for now I have to set the brushes aside and focus on prepping for a colored pencil portrait workshop I'm doing in Live Oak next week and then I have several portrait commissions to work on. It's good to be busy!

I love to see what other artists are doing. While I've been working at the easel I have my laptop open on the table so I can watch/listen to stuff while I paint. This week I've been re-watching the Work of Art reality show from Bravo. I found them on YouTube. I saw them when they were first aired but it's been a while. I loved watching the process of the artists. My only wish is that Bravo would make more seasons. It's very sad that they stopped after season 2.

So 2 questions for you..... What are you working on? (feel free to share pics) and Do you know of any good documentaries on art- preferably something on contemporary artists?

Back to work...... 

Have a great weekend!

Done!

Finished the latest ice painting this morning. I'm calling it Frozen, it's 18x18 in size. Next up.... I've been given some photos by one of my students and I can't wait to start the next one. I'm intrigued by these pictures- there are some interesting forms and patterns to play with. We'll see what happens.

What have I been doing?

Boy do I have some updating to do!! I've done a lot of work since posting last so I'll share a few pics...

These are brand new landscapes inspired by aerial photos I took as I was flying into Tampa airport. These pieces are very textured. I used Super Heavy Gesso and many layers of drybrushing. Size wise they're 11x14 and 12x12.

This one is the newest tree piece and the largest one I've done- it's 48x36 and it has tons of texture. I covered the entire canvas with layers of tissue paper.

Then..... there's the colored pencil work. I've been doing some commission work and of course doing portraits of my grandbabies. Pouty Face is the one I just finished this past week and I think it's one of my faves. Harlen is such a character I know I'll be doing more with his beautiful face.

This gorgeous animal is Winston and he was a commission piece for a dear friend of mine. He was a real joy to paint and a real challenge too. That hair!!!

Yep, still partying. Friday Painting Parties are still happening. In fact I'm now doing an afternoon session along with the evening. Last month we did a scene from Tuscawilla Park - Ibis Morning, a line up of birds along the waters edge.

This month we're doing a landscape....

Just one more bit of news for now- a show at Gateway Bank! Check this out. The reception is passed but the show is up until May 26th.

There's a sampling of what I've been up to. Leaving for now but I'll be back! I swear! I'll be adding new work to the pages up at the top and I'll post more of the portrait work including photos of the work as it progresses. See you soon.